UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


The  RALPH  D.  REED  LIBRARY 

VNT  OF  HEOLOGY 
UNIVi :;  AMFORNIA 

LOS  AWGELKS,  CAJUF. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIES,  BY  AGNES  GIBERNE. 


1.  SUM,  MOON,  AND  STARS.    A  BOOK  OF  ASTRONOMY 

FOR  BEGINNERS.    Illus.     I2mo 1.50 

"  Here  in  a  comparatively  small  and  inexpensive  volume,  we  have  presented,  in 
a  charming  way,  what  will  give  to  any  reader  a  very  intelligent  view  of  our  solar 
system,  and  of  the  whole  planetary  world." — Parish  Visitor. 

"  Let  it  not  be  imagined  that  it  is  a  dry  compendium,  or  that  it  deals  only  with 
familiar  facts;  on  the  contrary,  the  volume  is  full  of  information  that  will  be  found 
fresh  and  highly  entertaining." — Christian  World. 

2.  AMONG  THE  STARS:  OR,  WONDERFUL  THINGS  IN  THE 

SKY.     i2mo 1.50 

"  The  form  which  the  book  takes  is  that  of  a  story,  with  a  quiet  thread  of  per- 
sonal interest  running  through  it;  and  the  text  is  freely  illustrated  by  helpful  wood- 
cuts. MissGiberne  is  both  a  skilled  story- writer  and  a  writer  of  accurate  books 
of  popular  science;  and  in  this  bright  book  she  really  takes  pains  to  combine  both 
characters,  and  yet  to  produce  a  work  which  is  not  beyond  the  comprehension  of 
the  youngest  child  who  is  able  to  read." — S.  S.  Times. 

3.  THE   WORLD'S  FOUNDATIONS:   OR,  GEOLOGY  FOR 

BEGINNERS.    Illus.         i2mo 1.50 

"  The  writer's  object  in  the  present  volume,  as  in  the  admirable  one  on  Astron- 
omy wnich  preceded  it,  is  worthy  of  special  commendation.  She  hopes  to  teach 
the  young,  and  all  beginners  in  scientific  study,  whether  young  or  grown-up,  that 
there  is  a  Christian  way  of  looking  at  the  wonders  which  have  been  discovered  in 
the  heavens  and  in  the  earth.  In  these  pages  she  tells  the  story  which  geologists 
are  wont  to  tell,  though  never  in  so  simple  and  clear  a  manner,  and  not  always  in 
so  reverent  a  spirit.  This  author  has,  we  are  glad  to  see,  made  scientific  accuracy 
an  important  point,  so  that  the  book  is  both  wholesome  and  reliable." — Churchman. 

4.  FATHER  ALDUR:  A  WATER  STORY.     I2mo.   .        .        1.50 

It  is  a  significant  thing  that  so  many  of  the  new  books  deal  with  the  wonders  of 
nature,  presenting  them  in  such  form  that  they  may  be  comprehended  by  the  most 
sluggish  mind.  This  augurs  well  for  the  intelligence  of  the  rising  generation.  The 
latest  acquisition  in  this  field  comes  from  the  press  of  Carter  Bros.,  under  the  name 
of  FATHER  ALDUR.  Miss  Agnes  Giberne  uses  her  facile  pen  in  this  work  to  spread 
before  us  the  history  of  rivers,  tracing  them  through  all  their  way  from  the  springs 
at  their  source  until  they  are  lost  in  the  ocean." 

5.  THE  OCEAN  OF  AIR.     I2mo 1.50 


ROBERT  CARTER  &»  BROTHERS. 


THE 


WORLD'S   FOUNDATIONS 


GEOLOGY  FOR    BEGINNERS 


BY 

AGNES    GIBERNE 

AUTHOR    OF   "SUN,    MOON    AND    STARS,"    ETC. 


•OToU1*4  Th-Ju  Iai4  tSeToundation.V.tfle  EVK."-Pi?A*  ?«.  3f,: 


NEW  YORK 
ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS 

530  BROADWAY 


Cambridge  St.  Johnlana 

Press  of  Stereotype  Foundry, 

John  Wilson  &•  So*.  Suffolk  Co.,  N.  Y. 


PU8i.fr:     I.J.M  /.RY 
GRAND    KA^HJS,   MUH. 

AUG  98 


G-35 


VO 


PREFACE. 


THE  very  warm  and  hearty  reception  accorded  to  my  little 
book  on  Astronomy,  has  been  my  best  encouragement  in 
entering  upon  the  domain  of  the  sister  science,  Geology. 

This  companion-volume  to  "Sun,  Moon  and  Stars"  is 
written  upon  much  the  same  plan,  and  is  intended  for  the 
same  class  of  readers — for  Beginners  of  all  kinds,  whether 
poor  or  rich,  whether  boys,  girls,  or  grown-up  people. 

My  object  in  writing  it  has  been  not  so  much  to  supply 
a  certain  amount  of  technical  knowledge, — for  this  may  be 
easily  obtained  from  ordinary  class-books, — as  to  open  the 
eyes  of  others  to  the  hidden  wonders  and  possibilities  of 
enjoyment  which  lie  folded  in  this  little-studied  branch  of 
science. 

Geology  is  counted  by  many  to  be  a  dull  subject.  But 
if  it  has  its  dry  bones,  it  has  also  its  forms  of  poetic  beau- 
ty, its  scenes  of  loveliness,  its  chords  of  sublime  harmony. 

Geology  is  counted  by  others  to  be  a  dangerous  subject. 
But  if  so,  the  danger  lies  in  ourselves,  not  in  Geology. 
Man's  haste  in  decision,  and  his  readiness  to  put  faith  in 


490708 


vi  Preface. 

unproved  theories,  may  lead  him  astray.  The  study  of 
God's  truths,  if  rightly  undertaken,  cannot  cause  his  feet 
to  wander. 

Geology  speaks  to  us,  as  surely  as  the  Bible  itself  speaks 
to  us,  of  the  Creator  and  His  ways,  albeit  in  terms  more 
ambiguous,  in  language  more  easily  misunderstood.  The 
one  is  His  Word,  the  other  is  His  Handiwork.  That  the 
one  should  contradict  the  other  is  not  possible.  That 
the  one  and  the  other  should  contain  mysteries  past  our 
power  to  fathom,  is  only  what  we  might  expect  from  the 
Word  and  the  Handiwork  of  an  Infinite  God. 

I  have  merely  to  state,  in  conclusion,  that  neither  time 
nor  pains  have  been  spared  in  the  endeavor  to  insure  accu- 
racy as  well  as  interest.  The  leading  Geological  writers  of 
England  and  of  America  have  been  my  authorities.  Thanks, 
lastly,  are  due  for  the  kind  and  able  criticisms  of  competent 
friends,  who  have  generously  given  time  and  thought  to 
the  examination  of  my  proof-sheets. 

WORTON  HOUSE,  EASTBOURNE, 
August,   1 88 1. 


CONTENTS. 


PART    I. 

HOW   TO   READ   THE   RECORD. 

CHAP.  PA<?» 

/  What  the  Earth's  Crust  is  made  of         .  .         i 

//.  Water-built  Rocks 8 

III.  Fossils  in  the  Rocks       .         .         .         .  .18 

IV.  Fire-built  Rocks 30 

V.  What  Rocks  are  made  of                .         .  .40 

VI.  Rock-layers 52 

VII.  Rock-bendings 6r 

VIII.  Ice-work 70 

IX.  The  Two  Books 84 

PART     II. 
A  STORY  OF  OLDEN  DAYS. 

X.     Two  Kingdoms 93 

XL     Earliest  Ages 103 

XII.      The  Age  of  Lower  Animals  .         .         .         .no 


Contents. 


CHAP.  PACK. 

XIII.  The  Age  of  Fishes       ....         121 

XIV.  The  Age  of  Coal 129 

XV.  More  about  the  Age  of  Coal .         .         .         139 

XVI.  The  Age  of  Reptiles         .         .         .         .147 

XVII.  The  Age  of  Chalk        ....          159 

XVIII.  The  Age  of  Mammals      .         .         .         .175 

XIX.  More  about  the  Age  of  Mammals  .         .          181 

XX.     The  Age  of  Ice 189 

XXI.  The  Age  of  Man          ....         201 

XXII.  The  Two  Records    .....     209 

PART     III. 
THE  PAST  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRESENT. 

XXIII.  Risers    .        .        .        ....         .225 

XXIV.  Waters       „.       ...        ,.        „        .         234 
XXV.  Deltas    .                                     .         .         .242 

XXVI.  Glaciers       ......         252 

XXVII.  Volcanoes  .  „  „  ^  .  .  261 

XXVIII.  Earthquakes  v  .  .  .  .  277 

XXIX.  Hot  Springs  .  .  288 

XXX.  Coral.  .  „  *  299 

XXXI.  Stalactite          .         .        „        *        <.         .313 


PART    I. 

HOW  TO   READ    THE   RECORD. 


THE  WORLD'S    FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
WHAT  THE  EARTH'S  CRUST  is  MADE  OF. 

"Stand  still  and  consider  the  wondrous  works  of  God." 

JOB  xxxvii.  14. 

WHAT  is  the  earth  made  of— this  round  earth  upon 
which  we  human  beings  live  and  move  ? 

A  question  more  easily  asked  than  answered,  as 
regards  a  very  large  portion  of  it.  For  the  earth  is  a 
huge  ball  nearly  eight  thousand  miles  in  diameter, 
and  we  who  dwell  on  the  outside  have  no  means  of 
getting  down  more  than  a  very  little  way  below  the 
surface.  So  it  is  quite  impossible  for  us  to  speak 
positively  as  to  the  inside  of  the  earth,  and  what  it 
is  made  of.  Some  people  believe  the  earth's  inside 
to  be  hard  and  solid,  while  others  believe  it  to  be 
one  enormous  lake  or  furnace  of  fiery  melted  rock. 
But  nobody  really  knows. 

If  we  break  up  the  word  GEOLOGY,  we  find  that  it 
is  made  out  of  two  Greek  words,  ge,  the  earth,  and 
logos,  a  word  or  discourse.  The  meaning  of  "geol- 


The   World's  Foundations. 


ogy"  is  simply  a  word,  or  a  discourse,  or  teaching, 
about  the  earth.  More  strictly,  it  is  not  teaching 
about  the  whole  earth,  but  only  about  the  crust  of 
the  earth. 

This  outside  crust  has  been  reckoned  to  be  of 
many  different  thicknesses.  One  man  will  say 
it  is  ten  miles  thick,  and  another  will  rate  it  at 
four  hundred  miles.  So  far  as  regards  man's 
knowledge  of  it,  gained  from  mining,  from  boring, 
from  examination  of  rocks,  and  from  reasoning  out 
all  that  may  be  learnt  by  these  observations,  we 
shall  allow  an  ample  margin  if  we  count  the  field 
of  geology  to  extend  some  twenty  miles  downwards 
from  the  highest  mountain-tops.  Beyond  this  we 
find  ourselves  in  a  land  of  darkness  and  conjecture. 

Twenty  miles  is  only  one  four-hundredth  part  of 
the  earth's  diameter — a  mere  thin  shell  over  a 
massive  globe.  If  the  earth  were  brought  down  in 
size  to  an  ordinary  large  school  globe,  a  piece  of  rough 
brown  paper  covering  it  might  well  represent  the 
thickness  of  this  earth-crust,  with  which  the  science 
of  geology  has  to  do.  And  the  whole  of  the  globe, 
this  earth  of  ours,  is  but  one  tiny  planet  in  the  great 
Solar  System.  And  the  centre  of  that  Solar  Sys- 
tem, the  blazing  sun,  though  equal  in  size  to  more 
than  a  million  earths,  is  yet  himself  but  one  star 


What  the  Earth's  Crust  is  Made  of.  3 

amid  millions  of  twinkling  stars,  scattered  broadcast 
through  the  universe.  So  it  would  seem  at  first 
sight  that  the  field  of  geology  is  a  small  field  com- 
pared with  that  of  astronomy. 

But  as  we  go  on  we  shall  find  that  the  lesser 
things  of  God  are,  in  their  way,  as  great  as  those 
things  which  at  first  sight  may  seem  the  mightier. 
We  shall  find  prospects  of  wonder  and  power,  of  mys- 
tery and  beauty,  unfolding  before  our  eyes.  Wrapped 
up  in  the  crust  of  this  earth  are  marvellous  tokens  of 
the  goodness  and  greatness  of  God,  and  strange  his- 
tories of  olden  days  are  written  in  her  stones. 

So  it  is  distinctly  with  the  question  of  the  earth's 
crust  that  we  are  now  concerned — how  that  crust 
was  formed,  how  it  was  changed  and  modified  by 
various  influences,  how  it  was  gradually  built  up 
into  its  present  form. 

For  the  earth's  crust  was  not  always  such  as  it 
is  now. 

"In  the  beginning  God  made  the  earth" — but  He 
did  not  make  it  then  and  at  once  complete.  There 
was  a  time  when  man's  foot  had  never  pressed  her 
soil.  There  was  a  time,  farther  back,  when  no  wild 
beasts  roved  through  her  forests  and  no  cattle 
browsed  upon  her  hills.  There  was  a  time,  yet  far- 
ther back,  when  no  fishes  swam  in  her  wide  waters. 


The  World's  Foundations. 


There  was  a  time,  still  farther  back,  when  no  forests 
clothed  her  mountains  or  lined  her  valleys.  There 
was  a  time,  yet  farther  removed  from  the  present, 
when  no  mountains  towered  heavenward,  and  no 
valleys  had  been  scooped  out  between  them. 
There  was  a  time,  still  more  distant,  when  no  con- 
tinents or  islands  had  risen  out  of  the  mighty  and 
dark  ocean,  and  in  all  the  dreary  waste  of  waters 
life  was  a  thing  unknown. 

For  stage  by  stage,  God  was  slowly  preparing 
this  earth-crust  to  be  the  abode  of  man,  working 
calmly  and  deliberately,  as  God  does  work,  with 
none  of  the  feverish  haste  and  restless  impatience 
of  man.  What  are  countless  ages  in  their  flight  to 
Him  who  is  the  King  of  Eternity? 

But  now  we  come  back  to  the  question  with 
which  we  began,  the  question  as  to  what  this  earth 
is  made  of? 

With  regard  to  the  great  bulk  of  the  globe  lit- 
tle can  be  said.  Very  probably  it  is  formed 
through  and  through  of  the  same  materials  as 
the  crust.  This  we  do  not  know.  Neither  can 
we  tell,  even  if  it  be  so  formed,  whether  the  said 
materials  are  solid  and  cold  like  the  outside  crust, 
or  whether  they  are  liquid  with  heat.  The  be- 


What  the  Earth's  Crust  is  Made  of.  5 

lief  has  been  long  and  widely  held  that  the 
whole  inside  of  the  earth  is  one  vast  lake  or  fur- 
nace of  melted  fiery-hot  material,  with  only  a  thin 
cooled  crust  covering  it.  Some  in  the  present  day  are 
inclined  to  question  this,  and  hold  rather  that  the 
earth  is  solid  and  cold  throughout,  though  with  large 
lakes  of  liquid  fire  here  and  there,  under  or  in  her 
crust,  from  which  our  volcanoes  are  fed.  Either 
opinion  or  both  opinions  may  be  mistaken. 

It  will  be  found,  as  we  go  on,  that  a  great  many 
opposite  opinions  are  held  on  many  questions  in 
geology,  and  that  a  great  many  theories  are  started 
which  have  very  little  real  foundation.  A  "  theory" 
is  a  possible  explanation  of  a  mystery,  put  forward 
as  the  best  which  can  be  offered,  until  something 
more  shall  be  known  about  the  matter.  Some  the- 
ories are  in  time  found  to  be  the  true  explanation, 
but  a  great  many  more  have  to  be  thrown  aside. 
No  theory  should  ever  be  spoken  of  as  if  it  were  a 
TRUTH,  until  it  is  plainly  proved  to  be  such,  with 
no  possibility  of  mistake. 

So  with  regard  to  the  earth's  inside  and  what  it  is 
made  of,  we  cannot  get  beyond  theories.  But  when 
we  speak  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  real  domain  of  geo- 
logy, there  is  not  the  same  sort  of  difficulty,  since 
here  we  can  see,  and  feel,  and  examine  for  ourselves. 


The  Worlds  Foundations. 


The  materials  of  which  the  crust  is  made  are 
many  and  various,  yet,  generally  speaking,  they 
may  all  be  classed  under  one  simple  word,  and 
that  word  is— ROCK. 

It  must  be  understood  that,  when  we  talk  of  rock 
in  this  geological  sense,  we  do  not  only  mean  hard 
and  solid  stone,  as  in  common  conversation.  Rock 
may  be  changed  by  heat  into  a  liquid  or  "  molten  " 
state,  as  ice  is  changed  by  heat  to  water.  Liquid 
rock  may  be  changed  by  yet  greater  heat  to  vapor, 
as  water  is  changed  to  steam,  only  we  have  in  a 
common  way  no  such  heat  at  command  as  would 
be  needed  to  effect  this.  Rock  may  be  hard  or 
soft.  Rock  may  be  chalky,  clayey,  or  sandy.  Rock 
may  be  so  close-grained  that  strong  force  is  needed 
to  break  it;  or  it  may  be  so  porous — so  full  of  tiny 
holes — that  water  will  drain  through  it;  or  it  may 
be  crushed  and  crumbled  into  loose  grains,  among 
which  you  can  pass  your  fingers. 

The  cliffs  above  our  beaches  are  rock;  the  sand 
upon  our  seashore  is  rock;  the  clay  used  in  brick- 
making  is  rock;  the  limestone  of  the  quarry  is  rock; 
the  marble  of  which  our  mantel-pieces  are  made  is 
rock.  The  soft  sandstone  of  South  Devon,  and  the 
hard  granite  of  the  north  of  Scotland,  are  alike 
rock.  The  pebbles  in  the  road  are  rock;  the  very 


What  the  Earth's  Crust  is  made  of.  7 

mould  in  our  gardens  is  largely  composed  of  crum- 
bled rock.  So  the  word  in  its  geological  sense  is 
a  word  of  wide  meaning. 

Now  the  business  of  the  geologist  is  to  read  the 
history  of  the  past  in  these  rocks  of  which  the  earth's 
crust  is  made.  This  may  seem  a  singular  thing  to 
do,  and  I  can  assure  you  it  is  not  an  easy  task. 

For,  to  begin  with,  the  history  itself  is  written 
in  a  strange  language,  a  language  which  man  is 
only  just  beginning  to  spell  out  and  understand. 
And  this  is  only  half  the  difficulty  with  which  we 
have  to  struggle. 

If  a  large  and  learned  book  were  put  before  you 
and  you  were  set  to  read  it  through,  you  would,  per- 
haps, have  no  insurmountable  difficulty,  with  pa- 
tience and  perseverance,  in  mastering  its  meaning. 

But  how  if  the  book  were  first  chopped  up  into 
pieces,  if  part  of  it  were  flung  away  out  of  reach,  if 
part  of  it  were  crushed  into  a  pulp,  if  the  numbering 
of  the  pages  were  in  many  places  lost,  if  the  whole 
were  mixed  up  in  confusion,  and  if  then  you  were 
desired  to  sort,  and  arrange,  and  study  the  volume  ? 

Picture  to  yourself  what  sort  of  a  task  this  would 
be,  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of  the  labors  of  the 
patient  geologist. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WATER-BUILT   ROCKS. 
"The  waters  wear  the  stones." — JOB  xiv.  19. 

ROCKS  may  be  divided  into  several  kinds  or  classes. 
For  the  present  moment  it  will  be  enough  to  con- 
sider the  two  grand  divisions — STRATIFIED  ROCKS 
and  UNSTRATIFIED  ROCKS. 

Unstratified  rocks  are  those  which  were  once,  at 
a  time  more  or  less  distant,  in  a  melted  state  from 
intense  heat,  and  which  have  since  cooled  into  a 
half  crystallized  state;  much  the  same  as  water, 
when  growing  colder,  cools  and  crystallizes  into 
ice.  Strictly  speaking,  ice  is  rock,  just  as  much  as 
granite  and  sandstone  are  rock.  Water  itself  is  of 
the  nature  of  rock,  only  as  we  commonly  know  it 
in  the  liquid  state  we  do  not  commonly  call  it  so. 

"  Crystallization"  means  those  particular  forms  or 
shapes  in  which  the  particles  of  a  liquid  arrange 
themselves,  as  that  liquid  hardens  into  a  solid — in 


Water-Built  Rocks. 


other  words,  as  it  freezes.  Granite,  iron,  marble,  are 
frozen  substances,  just  as  truly  as  ice  is  a  frozen 
substance;  for  with  greater  heat  they  would  all  be- 
come liquid  like  water.  When  a  liquid  freezes,  there 
are  always  crystals  formed,  though  these  are  not 
always  visible  without  the  help  of  a  microscope. 
Also  the  crystals  are  of  different  shapes  with  dif- 
ferent substances. 

If  you  examine  the  surface  of  a  puddle  or  pond, 
when  a  thin  covering  of  ice  is  beginning  to  form,  you 
will  be  able  to  see  plainly  the  delicate  sharp  needle- 
like  forms  of  the  ice  crystals.  Break  a  piece  of  ice, 
and  you  will  find  that  it  will  not  easily  break  just  in 
any  way  that  you  may  choose,  but  will  only  split 
along  the  lines  of  these  needle-like  crystals.  This 
particular  mode  of  splitting  in  a  crystallized  rock  is 
called  the  cleavage  of  that  rock. 

Crystallization  may  take  place  either  slowly  or 
rapidly,  and  either  in  the  open  air  or  far  below 
ground.  The  lava  from  a  volcano  is  an  example 
of  rock  which  has  crystallized  rapidly  in  the  open 
air;  and  granite  is  an  example  of  rock  which 
has  crystallized  slowly  underground  beneath  great 
pressure. 

Stratified  rocks,  on  the  contrary,  which  make  up  a 
very  large  part  of  the  earth's  crust,  are  not  crystal- 


io  The  World's  Foundations. 

lized.  Instead  of  having  cooled  from  a  liquid  into  a 
solid  state,  they  have  been  slowly  built  up,  bit  by 
bit  and  grain  upon  grain,  into  their  present  form, 
through  long  ages  of  the  world's  history.  The 
materials  of  which  they  are  made  were  probably 
once,  long  long  ago,  the  Grumblings  from  granite 
and  other  crystallized  rocks,  but  they  show  now  no 
signs  of  crystallization. 

They  are  called  "stratified"  because  they  are  in 
themselves  made  up  of  distinct  layers,  and  also 
because  they  lie  thus  one  upon  another  in  layers, 
or  strata,  just  as  the  leaves  of  a  book  lie,  or  as 
the  bricks  of  a  house  are  placed. 

Throughout  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  of  Asia, 
of  Africa,  of  North  and  South  America,  of  Australia, 
these  rocks  are  to  be  found,  stretching  over  hun- 
dreds of  miles  together,  north,  south,  east,  and 
west,  extending  up  to  the  tops  of  some  of  the 
earth's  highest  mountains,  reaching  down  deep  into 
the  earth's  crust.  In  many  parts  if  you  could  dig 
straight  downwards  through  the  earth  for  thousands 
of  feet,  you  would  come  to  layer  after  layer  of  these 
stratified  rocks,  one  kind  below  another,  some  lay- 
ers thick,  some  layers  thin,  here  a  stratum  of  gravel, 
there  a  stratum  of  sandstone,  here  a  stratum  of  coal, 
there  a  stratum  of  clay. 


Water-Built  Rocks.  II 

But  how,  when,  where,  did  the  building  up  of 
all  these  rock-layers  take  place? 

People  are  rather  apt  to  think  of  land  and  water 
on  the  earth  as  if  they  were  fixed  in  one  changeless 
form, — as  if  every  continent  and  every  island  were 
of  exactly  the  same  shape  and  size  now  that  it 
always  has  been  and  always  will  be. 

Yet  nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth.  The 
earth-crust  is  a  scene  of  perpetual  change,  of  per- 
petual struggle,  of  perpetual  building  up,  of  perpet- 
ual wearing  away. 

The  work  may  go  on  slowly,  but  it  does  go  on. 
The  sea  is  always  fighting  against  the  land,  beating 
down  her  cliffs,  eating  into  her  shores,  swallowing 
bit  by  bit  of  solid  earth;  and  rain  and  frost  and 
inland  streams  are  always  busily  at  work,  helping 
the  ocean  in  her  work  of  destruction.  Year  by 
year  and  century  by  century  it  continues.  Not 
a  country  in  the  world  which  is  bordered  by 
the  open  sea  has  precisely  the  same  coast-line 
that  it  had  one  hundred  years  ago;  not  a  land 
in  the  world  but  parts  each  century  with  masses 
of  its  material,  washed  piecemeal  away  into  the 
ocean. 

Is  this  hard  to  believe  ?     Look  at  the  crumbling 


12  The   World's  Foundations. 

cliffs  around  old  England's  shores.  See  the  effect 
upon  the  beach  of  one  night's  fierce  storm.  Mark 
the  pathway  on  the  cliff,  how  it  seems  to  have  crept 
so  near  the  edge  that  here  and  there  it  is  scarcely 
safe  to  tread;  and  very  soon,  as  we  know,  it  will 
become  impassable.  Just  from  a  mere  accident,  of 
course, — the  breaking  away  of  some  of  the  earth, 
loosened  by  rain  and  frost  and  wind.  But  this  is 
an  accident  which  happens  daily  in  hundreds  of 
places  around  our  shores. 

Leaving  the  ocean,  look  now  at  this  river  in  our 
neighborhood,  and  see  the  slight  muddiness  which 
seems  to  color  its  waters.  What  from  ?  Only  a 
little  earth  and  sand  carried  off  from  the  banks  as 
it  flowed — very  unimportant  and  small  in  quantity, 
doubtless,  just  at  this  moment  and  just  at  this  spot. 
But  what  of  that  little  going  on  week  after  week, 
and  century  after  century,  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  the  river,  and  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  every  river  and  rivulet  in  our  whole  coun- 
try and  in  every  other  country.  A  vast  amount 
of  material  must  every  year  be  thus  torn  from  the 
land  and  given  to  the  ocean.  For  the  land's  loss 
here  is  the  ocean's  gain. 

And,  strange  to  say,  we  shall  find  that  this  same 
ocean,  so  busily  engaged  with  the  help  of  its  trib- 


Water- Built  Rocks.  13 

utary  rivers  in  pulling  down  land,  is  no  less  busily 
engaged  with  their  help  in  building  it  up. 

You  have  sometimes  seen  directions  upon  a  vial  of 
medicine  to  "shake"  before  taking  the  dose.  When 
you  have  so  shaken  the  bottle  the  clear  liquid  grows 
thick;  and  if  you  let  it  stand  for  awhile  the  thickness 
goes  off,  and  a  fine  grain-like  or  dust-like  substance 
settles  down  at  the  bottom — the  settlement  or  sedi- 
ment of  the  medicine.  The  finer  this  sediment,  the 
slower  it  is  in  settling.  If  you  were  to  keep  the  li- 
quid in  gentle  motion,  the  fine  sediment  would  not 
settle  down  at  the  bottom.  With  coarser  and  heav- 
ier grains  the  motion  would  have  to  be  quicker  to 
keep  them  supported  in  the  water. 

Now  it  is  just  the  same  thing  with  our  rivers  and 
streams.  Running  water  can  support  and  carry 
along  sand  and  earth,  which  in  still  water  would 
quickly  sink  to  the  bottom;  and  the  more  rapid  the 
movement  of  the  water,  the  greater  is  the  weight 
it  is  able  to  bear. 

This  is  plainly  to  be  seen  in  the  case  of  a  moun- 
tain torrent.  As  (it  foams  fiercely  through  its  rocky 
bed  it  bears  along,  not  only  mud  and  sand  and 
gravel,  but  stones  and  even  small  rocks,  grinding 
the  latter  roughly  together  till  they  are  gradually 
worn  away,  first  to  rounded  pebbles,  then  to  sand, 


14  The  World's  Foundations. 

and  finally  to  mud.  The  material  thus  swept  away 
by  a  stream,  ground  fine,  and  carried  out  to  sea — 
part  being  dropped  by  the  way  on  the  river-bed 
— is  called  detritus,  which  simply  means  worn-out 
material. 

The  tremendous  carrying-power  of  a  mountain 
torrent  can  scarcely  be  realized  by  those  who  have 
not  observed  it  for  themselves.  I  have  seen  a  little 
mountain-stream  swell  in  the  course  of  a  heavy 
thunderstorm  to  such  a  torrent,  brown  and  turbid 
with  earth  torn  from  the  mountain-side,  and  sweep- 
ing resistlessly  along  in  its  career  a  shower  of 
stones  and  rock-fragments.  That  which  happens 
thus  occasionally  with  many  streams  is  more  or 
less  the  work  all  the  year  round  of  many  more. 

As  the  torrent  grows  less  rapid,  lower  down  in 
its  course,  it  ceases  to  carry  rocks  and  stones, 
though  the  grinding  and  wearing  away  of  stones 
upon  the  rocky  bed  continues,  and  coarse  gravel 
is  borne  still  upon  its  waters.  Presently  the  widen- 
ing stream,  flowing  yet  more  calmly,  drops  upon  its 
bed  all  such  coarser  gravel  as  is  not  worn  away  to 
fine  earth,  but  still  bears  on  the  lighter  grains  of 
sand.  Next  the  slackening  speed  makes  even  the 
sand  too  heavy  a  weight,  and  that  in  turn  falls  to 
line  the  river-bed,  while  the  now  broad  and  placid 


Water- Built  Rocks.  15 

stream  carries  only  the  finer  particles  of  mud  sus 
pended  in  its  waters.  Soon  it  reaches  the  ocean, 
and  the  flow  being  there  checked  by  the  incoming 
ocean-tide,  even  the  mud  can  no  longer  be  held 
up,  and  it  also  sinks  slowly  in  the  shallows  near 
the  shore,  forming  sometimes  broad  mud-banks 
dangerous  to  the  mariner. 

This  is  the  case  only  with  smaller  rivers.  Where 
the  stream  is  stronger,  the  mud-banks  are  often 
formed  much  farther  out  at  sea;  and  more  often 
still  the  river-detritus  is  carried  away  and  shed 
over  the  ocean-bed,  beyond  the  reach  of  our  ken. 
The  powerful  rush  of  water  in  earth's  greater 
streams  bears  enormous  masses  of  sand  and  mud 
each  year  far  out  into  the  ocean,  there  dropping 
quietly  the  gravel,  sand,  and  earth,  layer  upon 
layer  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Thus  pulling  down 
and  building  up  go  on  ever  side  by  side;  and  while 
land  is  the  theatre  oftentimes  of  decay  and  loss, 
ocean  is  the  theatre  oftentimes  of  renewal  and  gain. 

Did  you  notice  the  word  Sediment  used  a  few 
pages  back  about  the  settlement  at  the  bottom 
of  a  medicine-vial? 

There  is  a  second  name  given  to  the  Stratified 
Rocks,  of  which  the  earth's  crust  is  so  largely 


1 6  The   World's  Foundations. 

made  up.  They  are  called  also  SEDIMENTARY 
ROCKS. 

The  reason  is  simply  this.  The  Stratified  Rocks 
of  the  present  day  were  once  upon  a  time  made 
up  out  of  the  sediment  stolen  first  from  land  and 
then  allowed  to  settle  down  on  the  sea-bottom. 

Long,  long  ago  the  rivers,  the  streams,  the 
ocean,  were  at  work,  as  they  are  now,  carrying 
away  rock  and  gravel,  sand  and  earth.  Then,  as 
now,  all  this  material,  borne  upon  the  rivers, 
washed  to  and  fro  by  the  ocean,  settled  down 
at  the  mouths  of  rivers  or  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  into  a  sediment,  one  layer  forming  over  an- 
other, gradually  built  up  through  long  ages.  At 
first  it  was  only  a  soft  loose  sandy  or  muddy 
sediment,  such  as  you  may  see  on  the  seashore, 
or  in  a  mud-bank.  But  as  the  thickness  of  the 
sediment  increased,  the  weight  of  the  layers  above 
gradually  pressed  the  lower  layers  into  firm  hard 
rocks;  and  still,  as  the  work  of  building  went  on, 
these  layers  were,  in  their  turn,  made  solid  by  the 
increasing  weight  over  them.  Certain  chemical 
changes  had  also  a  share  in  the  transformation 
from  soft  mud  to  hard  rock,  which  need  not  be 
here  considered. 

All  this   has   through   thousands   of  years   been 


Water -Built  Rocks.  17 

going  on.  The  land  is  perpetually  crumbling  away; 
and  fresh  land  under  the  sea  is  being  perpetually 
built  up,  from  the  very  same  materials  which  the 
sea  and  the  rivers  have  so  mercilessly  stolen  from 
continents  and  islands.  This  is  the  way,  if  geolo- 
gists rightly  judge,  in  which  a  very  large  part  of 
the  enormous  formations  of  Stratified  or  Sedimen- 
tary Rocks  have  been  made. 

So  far  is  clear.     But  now  we  come  to  a  difficulty. 


CHAPTER    III. 

FOSSILS    IN    THE    ROCKS. 

"  Dead  things  are  formed  from  under  the  waters  with  the  inhaoitants 
thereof." — JOB  xxvi.  5  (marg.). 

THE  Stratified  Rocks,  of  which  a  very  large  part  of 
the  continents  is  made,  appear  to  have  been  built 
up  slowly,  layer  upon  layer,  out  of  the  gravel,  sand, 
and  mud,  washed  away  from  the  land  and  dropped 
on  the  shore  of  the  ocean. 

You  may  see  these  layers  for  yourself  as  you 
walk  out  into  the  country.  Look  at  the  first  piece 
of  bluff  rock  you  come  near,  and  observe  the  clear 
pencil-like  markings  of  layer  above  layer — not  often 
indeed  lying  flat,  one  over  another,  and  this  must 
be  explained  later,  but  however  irregularly  slant- 
ing, still  plainly  visible.  You  can  examine  these 
lines  of  stratification  on  the  nearest  cliff,  the  near- 
est quarry,  the  nearest  bare  headland,  in  your 
neighborhood. 

But   how    can    this    be  ?     If  all    these   stratified 


Fossils  in  the  Rocks.  19 

rocks  are  built  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean  out  of  ma- 
terial taken  from  the  land,  how  can  we  by  any 
possibility  find  such  rocks  upon  the  land  ?  In  the 
beds  of  rivers  we  might  indeed  expect  to  see  them, 
but  surely  nowhere  else  save  under  ocean  waters 

Yet  find  them  we  do.  Through  England,  through 
the  two  great  world-continents,  they  abound  on  ev- 
ery side.  Thousands  of  miles  in  unbroken  succession 
are  composed  of  such  rocks. 

Stand  with  me  near  the  sea-shore,  and  let  us 
look  around.  Those  white  chalk  cliffs — they,  at 
least,  are  not  formed  of  sand  or  earth.  True,  and 
the  lines  of  stratification  are  in  them  very  indistinct, 
if  seen  at  all;  yet  they  too  are  built  up  of  sediment 
of  a  different  kind,  dropping  upon  ocean's  floor. 
More  of  this  later.  See,  however,  in  the  rough 
sides  of  yonder  bluff  the  markings  spoken  of,  fine 
lines  running  alongside  of  one  another,  sometimes 
flat,  sometimes  bent  or  slanting,  but  always  giving 
the  impression  of  layer  piled  upon  layer.  Yet  how 
can  one  for  a  moment  suppose  that  the  ocean- 
waters  ever  rose  so  high  ? 

Stay  a  moment.  Look  again  at  yonder  white 
chalk  cliff,  and  observe  a  little  way  below  the  top 
a  singular  band  of  shingles,  squeezed  into  the  cliff, 
as  it  were,  with  chalk  below  and  earth  above. 


2O  The   World's  Foundations. 

That  is  believed  to  be  an  old  sea-beach.  Once 
upon  a  time  the  waters  of  the  sea  are  sup- 
posed to  have  washed  those  shingles,  as  now  they 
wash  the  shore  near  which  we  stand,  and  all  the 
white  cliff  must  have  lain  then  beneath  the  ocean. 

Geologists  were  for  a  long  while  sorely  puzzled 
to  account  for  these  old  sea-beaches,  found  high  up 
in  the  cliffs  around  our  land  in  many  different 
places. 

They  had  at  first  a  theory  that  the  sea  must 
once,  in  far  back  ages,  have  been  a  great  deal 
higher  than  it  is  now.  But  this  explanation  only 
brought  about  fresh  difficulties.  It  is  quite  impos- 
sible that  the  level  of  the  sea  should  be  higher  in 
one  part  of  the  world  than  in  another.  If  the  sea 
around  England  were  then  one  or  two  hundred  feet 
higher  than  it  is  now,  it  must  have  been  one  or  two 
hundred  feet  higher  in  every  part  of  the  world 
where  the  ocean-waters  have  free  flow.  One  is 
rather  puzzled  to  know  where  all  the  water  could 
have  come  from,  for  such  a  tremendous  additional 
amount.  Besides,  in  some  places  remains  of  sea- 
animals  are  found  in  mountain  heights,  as  much 
as  two  or  three  thousand  feet  above  the  sea-level 
— as,  for  instance,  in  Corsica.  This  very  much  in- 
creases the  difficulty  of  the  above  explanation. 


Fossils  in  the  Rocks.  21 

So  another  theory  was  started  instead,  and  this 
is  now  generally  supposed  to  be  the  true  one. 
What  if  instead  of  the  whole  ocean  having  been 
higher,  parts  of  the  land  were  lower  ?  England  at 
one  time,  parts  of  Europe  at  another  time,  parts  of 
Asia  and  America  at  other  times,  may  have  slowly 
sunk  beneath  the  ocean,  and  after  long  remaining 
there  have  slowly  risen  again. 

This  is  by  no  means  so  wild  a  supposition  as  it  may 
seem  when  first  heard,  and  as  it  doubtless  did  seem 
when  first  proposed.  For  even  in  the  present  day 
these  movements  of  the  solid  crust  of  our  earth  are 
going  on.  The  coasts  of  Sweden  and  Finland  have 
long  been  slowly  and  steadily  rising  out  of  the  sea, 
so  that  the  waves  can  no  longer  reach  so  high  upon 
those  shores  as  in  years  gone  by  they  used  to  reach. 
In  Greenland,  on  the  contrary,  land  has  long  been 
slowly  and  steadily  sinking,  so  that  what  used  to 
be  the  shore  now  lies  under  the  sea.  Other  such 
risings  and  sinkings  might  be  mentioned,  as  also 
many  more  in  connection  with  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakes, which  are  neither  slow  nor  steady,  but  sud- 
den and  violent. 

So  it  becomes  no  impossible  matter  to  believe 
that,  in  the  course  of  ages  past,  all  those  wide 
reaches  of  our  continents  and  islands,  where  sedi- 


22  The   World's  Foundations. 

mentary  rocks  are  to  be  found,  were  each  in  turn, 
at  one  time  or  another,  during  long  periods,  be- 
neath the  rolling  waters  of  the  ocean. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that,  in  speaking 
of  those  probable  long-past  ages  of  slow  preparation, 
about  which  the  rocks  seem  to  tell  us,  I  am  not 
in  anywise  touching  upon  the  question  of  the  flood 
upon  earth  in  the  time  of  Noah.  That  was  com- 
paratively a  recent  event.  Whether  it  was  entirely 
miraculous,  or  whether  it  was  in  part  caused  by 
some  great  and  rapid  sinking  of  the  land,  is  an 
interesting  consideration,  with  which,  however,  we 
are  at  this  moment  not  concerned.  The  slow  build- 
ing up  of  the  continents  under  the  ocean  could  have 
taken  place  in  no  such  brief  space  of  time  as  the 
few  months  of  the  deluge  in  Noah's  days,  but  must 
have  occupied  very  long  periods. 

These  built-up  rocks  are  not  only  called  "  Strati- 
fied," and  "  Sedimentary."  They  have  also  the  name 
of  "  AQUEOUS  ROCKS,"  from  the  Latin  word  aqua, 
water;  because  they  are  believed  to  have  been 
formed  by  the  action  of  water. 

They  have  yet  another  and  fourth  title,  which  is, 
"  FOSSILIFEROUS  ROCKS." 

Fossils  are  the  hardened  remains  of  animals  and 


Fossils  in  the  Rocks.  23 

vegetables  found  in  rocks.  They  are  rarely,  if  ever, 
seen  in  unstratified  rocks;  but  many  layers  of  strati- 
fied rocks  abound  in  these  remains.  Whole  skele- 
tons as  well  as  single  bones,  whole  tree-trunks  as 
well  as  single  leaves,  are  found  thus  embedded  in 
rock-layers,  where  in  ages  past  the  animal  or  plant 
died  and  found  a  grave.  They  exist  by  thousands 
in  many  parts  of  the  world,  varying  in  size  from 
the  huge  skeleton  of  the  elephant  to  the  tiny  shell 
of  the  microscopic  animalcule. 

Fossils  differ  greatly  in  kind.  Sometimes  the  en- 
tire shell  or  bone  is  changed  into  stone,  losing  all 
its  animal  substance,  but  retaining  its  old  outline 
and  its  natural  markings.  Sometimes  the  fossil  is 
merely  the  hardened  impress  of  the  outside  of  a 
shell  or  leaf,  which  has  dented  its  picture  on  soft 
clay,  and  has  itself  disappeared,  while  the  soft 
clay  has  become  rock,  and  the  indented  picture 
remains  fixed  through  after-centuries.  Sometimes 
the  fossil  is  the  cast  of  the  inside  of  a  shell;  the 
said  shell  having  been  filled  with  soft  mud,  which 
has  taken  'its  exact  shape  and  hardened,  while  the 
shell  itself  has  vanished.  The  most  complete  de- 
scription of  fossil  is  the  first  of  these  three  kinds. 
Tt  is  wonderfully  shown  sometimes  in  fossil  wood, 
where  all  the  tiny  cells  and  delicate  fibres  remain 


24  The   World's  Foundations. 

distinctly  marked  as  of  old,  only  the  whole  woody 
substance  has  changed  into  hard  stone. 

But  although  the  fossil  remains  of  quadrupeds  and 
other  land-animals  are  found  in  large  quantities,  still 
their  number  is  small  compared  with  the  enormous 
amount  of  fossil  sea-shells  and  sea-animals. 

Land-animals  can,  as  a  rule,  have  been  so  pre- 
served, only  when  they  have  been  drowned  in  ponds 
or  rivers,  or  mired  in  bogs  and  swamps,  or  over- 
taken by  frost,  or  swept  out  to  sea. 

Sea-animals,  on  the  contrary,  have  been  so  pre- 
served on  land  whenever  that  land  has  been  under 
the  sea;  and  this  appears  to  have  been  the  case, 
at  one  or  another  past  age,  with  the  greater  part 
of  our  present  continents.  These  fossil  remains  of 
sea-animals  are  discovered  in  all  quarters  of  the 
world,  not  only  on  the  sea-shore  but  also  far  in- 
land, not  only  deep  down  underground  but  also 
high  up  on  the  tops  of  lofty  mountains — a  plain 
proof  that  over  the  summits  of  those  mountains 
the  ocean  must  once  have  rolled,  and  this  not  for 
a  brief  space  only,  but  through  long  periods  of 
time.  And  not  on  the  mountain-summit  only  are 
these  fossils  known  to  abound,  but  sometimes  in 
layer  below  layer  of  the  mountain,  from  top  to 
bottom,  through  thousands  of  feet  of  rock. 


Fossils  in  the  Rocks.  25 

This  may  well  seem  puzzling  at  first  sight.  Fos- 
sils of  sea-creatures  on  a  mountain-top  are  startling 
enough;  yet  hardly  so  startling  as  the  thought  of 
fossils  inside  that  mountain.  How  could  they  have 
found  their  way  thither  ? 

The  difficulty  soon  vanishes,  if  once  we  clearly 
understand  that  all  these  thousands  of  feet  of  rock 
were  built  up  slowly,  layer  after  layer,  when  that 
portion  of  the  land  lay  deep  under  the  sea.  Thus 
each  separate  layer  of  mud  or  sand  or  other  material 
became  in  its  turn  the  top  layer,  and  was  for  the 
time  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  until  further  droppings 
of  material  out  of  the  waters  made  a  fresh  layer, 
covering  up  the  one  below. 

While  each  layer  was  thus  in  succession  the  top 
layer  of  the  building,  and  at  the  same  time  the  floor 
of  the  ocean,  animals  lived  and  died  in  the  ocean, 
and  their  remains  sank  to  the  bottom,  resting  upon 
the  sediment  floor.  Thousands  of  such  dead  re- 
mains disappeared,  crumbling  into  fine  dust  and 
mingling  with  the  waters,  but  here  and  there  one 
was  caught  captive  by  the  half-liquid  mud,  and  was 
quickly  covered  and  preserved  from  decay.  And 
still  the  building  went  on,  and  still  layer  after 
layer  was  placed,  till  many  fossils  lay  deep  down 
beneath  the  later-formed  layers;  and  when  at 


?6  The   World's  Foundations. 

length,  by  slow  or  quick  upheaval  of  the  ground, 
Ihis  sea-'bottom  became  a  mountain,  the  little 
fossils  were  buried  within  the  body  of  that  moun- 
tain. So  wondrously  the  matter  appears  to  have 
come  about. 

Another  difficulty  with  respect  to  the  stratified 
rocks  has  to  be  thought  of.  All  these  layers  or 
deposits  of  gravel,  sand,  or  earth,  on  the  floor  of 
the  ocean,  would  naturally  be  horizontal — that  is, 
would  lie  flat,  one  upon  another.  In  places  the 
ocean-floor  might  slant,  or  a  crevice  or  valley  or 
ridge  might  break  the  smoothness  of  the  deposit. 
Hut  though  the  layers  might  partake  of  the  slant, 
though  the  valley  might  have  to  be  filled,  though 
the  ridge  might  have  to  be  surmounted,  still  the 
general  tendency  of  the  waves  would  be  to  level 
the  dropping  deposits  into  flat  layers. 

Then  how  is  it  that  when  we  examine  the  strata 
of  rocks  in  our  neighborhood,  wherever  that  neigh- 
borhood may  be,  we  do  not  find  them  so  arranged  ? 
Here,  it  is  true,  the  lines  for  a  space  are  nearly 
horizontal,  but  there,  a  little  way  farther  on,  they 
are  perpendicular;  here  they  are  bent,  and  there 
curved;  here  they  are  slanting,  and  there  crushed 
and  broken. 


Fossils  in  the  Rocks.  27 

This  only  bears  out  what  has  been  already  said 
about  the  Book  of  Geology.  It  has  been  bent  and 
disturbed,  crushed  and  broken. 

Great  powers  have  been  at  work  in  this  crust 
of  our  earth.  Continents  have  been  raised,  moun- 
tains have  been  upheaved,  vast  masses  of  rock  have 
been  scattered  into  fragments.  Here  or  there  we 
may  find  the  layers  arranged  as  they  were  first 
laid  down;  but  far  more  often  we  discover  signs 
of  later  disturbance,  either  slow  or  sudden,  vary- 
ing from  a  mere  quiet  tilting  to  a  violent  overturn. 

So  the  Book  of  Geology  is  a  torn  and  disor- 
ganized volume,  not  easy  to  read. 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  these  very  changes  which 
have  taken  place  are  a  help  to  the  geologist. 

It  may  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  he  would  have 
an  easier  task,  if  the  strata  were  all  left  lying  just 
as  they  were  first  formed,  in  smooth  level  layers, 
one  above  another.  But  if  it  were  so,  we  could 
know  very  little  about  the  lower  layers. 

We  might  indeed  feel  sure,  as  we  do  now,  that 
the  lowest  layers  were  the  oldest  and  the  top  lay- 
ers the  newest,  and  that  any  fossils  found  in  the 
lower  layers  must  belong  to  an  age  farther  back 
than  any  fossils  found  in  the  upper  layers. 

So   much   would   be   clear.     And  we   might   dig 


28  The   Worlds  Foundations. 

also  and  burrow  a  little  way  down,  through  a  few 
different  kinds  of  rock,  where  they  were  not  too 
thick.  But  that  would  be  all.  There  our  powers 
would  cease. 

Now  how  different.  Through  the  heavings  and 
tiltings  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  lower  layers  are 
often  pushed  quite  up  to  the  surface,  so  that  we 
are  able  to  examine  them  and  their  fossils  with- 
out the  least  difficulty,  and  very  often  without 
digging  underground  at  all. 

You  must  not  suppose  that  the  real  order  of  the 
rocks  is  changed  by  these  movements,  for  gener- 
ally speaking  it  is  not.  The  lower  kinds  are  rarely 
if  ever  found  placed  over  the  upper  kinds;  only  the 
ends  of  them  are  seen  peeping  out  above  ground. 

It  is  as  if  you  had  a  pile  of  copy-books  lying 
flat  one  upon  another,  and  were  to  put  your  rin- 
ger under  the  lowest  and  push  it  up.  All  those 
above  would  be  pushed  up  also,  and  perhaps  they 
would  slip  a  little  way  down,  so  that  you  would 
have  a  row  of  edges  showing  side  by  side,  at  very 
much  the  same  height.  The  arrangement  of  the 
copy-books  would  not  be  changed,  for  the  lowest 
would  still  be  the  lowest  in  actual  position;  but  a 
general  tilting  or  upheaval  would  have  taken  place. 

Just  such  a  tilting  or  upheaval  has  taken  place 


dossils  tn  the  Rocks.  29 

again  and  again  with  the  rocks  forming  our  earth- 
crust.  The  edges  of  the  lower  rocks  often  show 
side  by  side  with  those  of  higher  layers. 

But  geologists  know  them  apart.  They  are  able 
to  tell  confidently  whether  such  and  such  a  rock, 
peeping  out  at  the  earth's  surface,  belongs  really  to 
a  lower  or  a  higher  kind.  For  there  is  a  certain 
sort  of  order  followed  in  the  arrangement  of  rock- 
layers  all  over  the  earth,  and  it  is  well-known  that 
some  rocks  are  never  found  below  some  other 
rocks,  that  certain  particular  kinds  are  never  placed 
above  certain  other  kinds.  Thus  it  follows  that  the 
fossils  found  in  one  description  of  rock,  must  be 
the  fossils  of  animals  which  lived  and  died  before 
the  animals  whose  fossil  remains  are  found  in  an- 
other neighboring  rock,  just  because  this  last  rock- 
layer  was  built  upon  the  ocean-floor  above  and 
therefore  later  than  the  other. 

All  this  is  part  of  the  foreign  language  of  geology 
— part  of  the  piecing  and  arranging  of  the  torn 
volume.  Many  mistakes  are  made;  many  blunders 
are  possible:  but  the  mistakes  and  blunders  are  be- 
ing gradually  corrected,  and  certain  rules  by  which 
to  read  and  understand  are  becoming  more  and 
more  clear. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRE-BUILT   ROCKS. 

"For  all  those  things  hath  Mine  Hand  made,  and  all  those  things 
have  been,  saith  the  Lord." — ISA.  Ixvi.  2. 

IT  has  been  already  said  that  Unstratified  Rocks 
are  those  which  have  been  at  some  period,  whether 
lately  or  very  long  ago,  in  a  liquid  state  from  in- 
tense heat,  and  which  have  since  cooled,  either 
quickly  or  slowly,  crystallizing  as  they  cooled. 

Unstratified  Rocks  may  be  divided  into  two  dis- 
tinct classes. 

First  —  Volcanic  Rocks,  such  as  lava.  These 
have  been  quickly  cooled  at  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
or  not  far  below  it. 

Secondly  —  Plutonic  Rocks,  such  as  granite. 
These  have  been  slowly  cooled,  deep  down  in  the 
earth,  under  heavy  pressure. 

There  is  also  a  class  of  rocks,  called  Metamorphic 
Rocks,  including  some  kinds  of  marble.  These  are, 
strictly  speaking,  crystalline  rocks,  and  yet  they 


Fire- Built  Rocks.  31 

are  arranged  in  something  like  layers.  The  word 
"  metamorphic  "  simply  means  "transformed."  They 
are  believed  to  have  been  once  stratified  rocks,  per- 
haps containing  often  the  remains  of  animals;  but  in- 
tense heat  has  later  transformed  them  into  crystal- 
line rocks,  and  the  animal  remains  have  almost  or 
quite  vanished. 

Just  as  the  different  kinds  of  Stratified  Rocks  are 
often  called  Aqueous  Rocks,  or  rocks  formed  by  the 
action  of  water — so  these  different  kinds  of  Unstrat- 
ified  Rocks  are  often  called  Igneous  Rocks,  or  rocks 
formed  by  the  action  of  fire — the  name  being  taken 
from  the  Latin  word  for  fire.  The  Metamorphic 
Rocks  are  sometimes  described  as  "  Aqueo-igne- 
ous,"  since  both  water  and  fire  helped  in  the  form- 
ing of  them. 

It  was  at  one  time  believed,  as  a  matter  of  cer- 
tainty, that  granite  and  such  rocks  belonged  to  a 
period  much  farther  back  than  the  periods  of  the 
stratified  rocks.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  supposed 
that  fire-action  had  come  first  and  water-action  sec- 
ond; that  the  fire-made  rocks  were  all  formed  in 
very  early  ages,  and  that  only  water-made  rocks 
still  continued  to  be  formed.  So  the  name  of  Primary 
Rocks,  or  First  Rocks,  was  given  to  the  granites 
and  other  such  rocks,  and  the  name  of  Secondary 


32  The   World's  Foundations. 

Rocks  to  all  water-built  rocks;  while  those  of  the 
third  class  were  called  Transition  Rocks,  because 
they  seemed  to  be  a  kind  of  link  or  stepping-stone 
in  the  change  from  the  First  to  the  Second  Rocks. 

The  chief  reason  for  the  general  belief  that  fire- 
built  rocks  were  older  than  water-built  ones  was, 
that  the  former  are  as  a  rule  found  to  lie  lower  than 
the  latter.  They  form,  as  it  were,  the  basement  of 
the  building,  while  the  top-stories  are  made  of  wa- 
ter-built rocks. 

Many  still  believe  that  there  is  mu:h  truth  in  the 
thought.  It  is  most  probable,  so  far  as  we  are  able 
to  judge,  that  the  first-formed  crust  of  rocks  all 
over  the  earth  was  of  cooled  and  crystallized  mate- 
rial. As  these  rocks  were  crumbled  and  wasted  by 
the  ocean,  materials  would  have  been  supplied  for 
the  building-up  of  rocks,  layer  upon  layer. 

But  this  is  conjecture.  We  cannot  know  with  any 
certainty  the  course  of  events  so  far  back  in  the 
past.  And  geologists  are  now  able  to  state  with 
tolerable  confidence  that,  however  old  many  of  the 
granites  may  be,  yet  a  large  amount  of  the  fire-built 
rocks  are  no  older  than  the  water-built  rocks  which 
lie  over  them. 

So  by  many  geologists  the  names  of  Primary, 
Transition,  and  Secondary  Formations  are  pretty 


Fire-Built  Rocks.  33 

well  given  up.  It  has  been  proposed  to  give  in- 
stead to  the  crystallized  rocks  of  all  kinds  the 
name  of  Underlying  Rocks.* 

But  if  they  really  do  lie  under,  how  can  they 
possibly  be  of  the  same  age  ?  One  would  scarcely 
venture  to  suppose,  in  looking  at  a  building,  that 
the  cellars  had  not  been  finished  before  the  upper 
floors. 

True.  In  the  first  instance  doubtless  the  cellars 
were  first  made,  then  the  ground-floor,  then  the 
upper  stories. 

When,  however,  the  house  was  so  built,  altera- 
tions and  improvements  might  be  very  widely  car- 
ried on  above  and  below.  While  one  set  of  work- 
men were  engaged  in  remodelling  the  roof,  another 
set  of  workmen  might  be  engaged  in  remodelling 
the  kitchens  and  first  floor,  pulling  down,  prop- 
ping up,  and  actually  rebuilding  parts  of  the  lower 
walls. 

This  is  precisely  what  the  two  great  fellow-work- 
men, Fire  and  Water,  are  ever  doing  in  the  crust 
of  our  earth.  And  if  it  be  objected  that  such  alter- 
ations too  widely  undertaken  might  result  in  slips, 
cracks,  and  slidings,  of  ceilings  and  walls  in  the 
upper  stories,  I  can  only  say  that  such  catastrophes 
•  Hypogene  Rocks. 


34  The   Worlds  Foundations. 

have  been  the  result  of  underground  alterations 
in  that  great  building,  the  earth's  crust. 

For  these  two  leading  powers  of  Nature  have 
been,  since  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world's  history, 
perpetually  at  work,  modelling  and  remodelling, 
pulling  down  and  building  up,  each  to  some  extent 
hindering  and  yet  to  some  extent  helping  the  other. 

By  "powers  of  Nature"  I  mean  simply  powers 
used  by  God  in  nature.  For  this  "  Nature,"  of 
which  we  hear  so  much,  is  but  the  handiwork  of 
God,  the  Divine  Architect.  The  powers  seen  ir 
nature,  Fire  and  Water,  Heat  and  Frost,  Gravi- 
tation and  Electricity,  these  and  a  hundred  others 
are  His  ordained  servants,  from  all  Eternity,  tc 
carry  out  His  will. 

We  see  therefore  clearly  that,  although  the  ear- 
liest fire-made  rocks  may  very  likely  date  farthei 
back  than  the  earliest  water-made  rocks,  yet  the 
making  of  the  two  kinds  has  gone  on  side  by  side, 
one  below  and  the  other  above  ground,  through 
all  ages  up  to  the  present  moment. 

And  just  as  in  the  present  day  water  continues 
its  busy  work  above  ground  of  pulling  down  and 
building  up,  so  also  fire  continues  its  busy  work 
underground  of  melting  rocks  which  afterwards  cool 


Fire- Built  Rocks.  35 

into  new  forms,  and  also  of  shattering  and  upheav- 
ing parts  of  the  earth-crust. 

For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  fiery  heat  doeb 
.exist  as  a  mighty  power  within  our  earth,  though 
to  what  extent  we  are  not  able  to  say. 

These  two  fellow-workers  in  nature  have  differ- 
ent modes  of  working.  One  we  can  see  on  all 
sides,  quietly  progressing,  demolishing  land  pa- 
tiently bit  by  bit,  building  up  land  steadily  grain 
by  grain.  The  other,  though  more  commonly  hid- 
den from  sight,  is  fierce  and  tumultuous  in  char- 
acter, and  shows  his  power  in  occasional  terrific 
outbursts. 

We  in  our  placid  island-home  can  scarcely  realize 
what  the  power  is  of  the  imprisoned  fiery  forces 
underground,  though  even  we  are  not  without  some 
witness  of  their  existence.  From  time  to  time 
even  our  firm  land  has  been  felt  to  tremble  with 
a  thrill  from  some  far-off  shock;  and  even  in  our 
country  is  seen  the  marvel  of  scalding  water  pour- 
ing unceasingly  from  deep  underground.  Where 
is  the  furnace  that  heats  the  boiler  whence  flow 
those  steaming  waters  in  the  pleasant  town  of 
Bath?  What  also  of  the  wide  hollow,  probably 
an  ancient  extinct  crater,  in  which  the  town  is 
built?  There  have  surely  been  past  workings  of 


36  The  World's  Foundations. 

underground  furnace-heat  in  that  neighborhood,  not 
entirely  at  an  end  even  now. 

But  it  is  when  we  read  about  other  countries  that 
we  better  realize  the  existence  of  this  power. 

Think  of  the  tremendous  eruptions  of  Vesuvius, 
of  Etna,  of  Hecla,  of  Mauna  Loa.  Think  of  whole 
towns  crushed  and  buried,  with  their  thousands 
of  living  inhabitants.  Think  of  rivers  of  glowing 
lava  streaming  up  from  regions  below  ground,  and 
pouring  along  the  surface  for  a  distance  of  forty, 
fifty,  and  even  sixty  miles,  as  in  Iceland  and 
Hawaii.  Think  of  red-hot  cinders  flung  from  a 
volcano-crater  to  a  height  of  ten  thousand  feet. 
Think  of  lakes  of  liquid  fire  in  other  craters,  five 
hundred  to  a  thousand  feet  across,  huge  cauldrons 
of  boiling  rock.  Think  of  showers  of  ashes  from 
the  furnace  below  of  yet  another,  borne  so  high 
aloft  as  to  be  carried  seven  hundred  miles  before 
they  sank  to  earth  again.  Think  of  millions  of 
red-hot  stones  flung  out  in  one  eruption  of  Vesuvius. 
Think  of  a  mass  of  rock,  one  hundred  cubic  yards 
in  size,  hurled  to  a  distance  of  eight  miles  or  more 
out  of  the  crater  of  Cotopaxi. 

Think  also  of  earthquake-shocks  felt  through 
twelve  hundred  miles  of  country.  Think  of  fierce 
tremblings  and  heavings  lasting  in  constant  sue- 


Fire-Built  Rocks.  37 

cession  through  days  and  weeks  of  terror.  Think 
of  hundreds  of  miles  of  land  raised  several  feet  in 
one  great  upheaval.  Think  of  the  earth  opening  in 
scores  of  widelipped  cracks,  to  swallow  men  and 
beasts.  Think  of  hot  mud,  boiling  water,  scalding 
steam,  liquid  rock,  bursting  from  such  cracks,  or 
pouring  from  rents  in  a  mountain-side. 

Truly  these  are  signs  of  a  state  of  things  in  or  be- 
low the  solid  crust  on  which  we  live,  that  may  make 
us  doubt  the  absolute  security  of  "  Mother  Earth." 

Different  explanations  have  been  put  forward  to 
explain  this  seemingly  fiery  state  of  things  under- 
ground. 

Until  lately  the  belief  was  widely  held  that  our 
earth  was  one  huge  globe  of  liquid  fire,  with  only 
a  slender  cooled  crust  covering  her,  a  few  miles  in 
thickness. 

This  view  was  supported  by  the  fact  that  heat  is 
found  to  increase  as  men  descend  into  the  earth. 
Measurements  of  such  heat-increase  have  been 
taken,  both  in  mines  and  in  borings  for  wells. '  The 
usual  rate  is  about  one  degree  more  of  heat,  of  our 
common  thermometer,  for  every  fifty  or  sixty  feet 
of  descent.  If  this  were  steadily  continued,  water 
would  boil  at  a  depth  of  eight  thousand  feet  below 


38  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  surface;  iron  would  melt  at  a  depth  of  twenty- 
eight  miles;  while  at  a  depth  of  forty  or  fifty  miles 
no  known  substance  upon  earth  could  remain  solid. 

The  force  of  this  proof  is,  however,  weakened  by 
the  fact  that  the  rate  at  which  the  heat  increases 
differs  very  much  in  different  places.  Also  it  is 
now  generally  supposed  that  such  a  tremendous 
furnace  of  heat — a  furnace  nearly  eight  thousand 
miles  in  diameter — could  not  fail  to  break  up  and 
melt  so  slight  a  covering  shell. 

Many  believe,  therefore,  not  that  the  whole  in- 
terior of  the  earth  is  liquid  with  heat,  but  that 
enormous  fire-seas  or  lakes  of  melted  rock  exist 
here  and  there,  under  or  in  the  earth-crust.  From 
these  lakes  the  volcanoes  would  be  fed,  and  they 
would  be  the  cause  of  earthquakes  and  land-up- 
heavals or  land-sinkings.  There  are  strong  reasons 
for  supposing  that  the  earth  was  once  a  fiery  liquid 
body,  and  that  she  has  slowly  cooled  through  long 
ages.  Some  hold  that  her  centre  probably  grew 
solid  first  from  tremendous  pressure;  that  her  crust 
afterwards  became  gradually  cold;  and  that  between 
the  solid  crust  and  the  solid  inside  or  "nucleus,"  a 
sea  of  melted  rock  long  existed,  the  remains  of 
which  are  still  to  be  found  in  these  tremendous 
fiery  reservoirs. 


Fire-Buih  Rocks.  39 

This  idea  accords  well  with  the  fact  that  large 
numbers  of  extinct  or  dead  volcanoes  are  scattered 
through  many  parts  of  the  earth.  If  the  above  ex- 
planation be  the  right  one,  doubtless  the  fire-seas 
in  the  crust  extended  once  upon  a  time  beneath 
such  volcanoes,  but  have  since  died  out  or  smoul- 
dered low  in  those  parts. 

A  somewhat  curious  calculation  has  been  made, 
to  illustrate  the  different  modes  of  working  of  these 
two  mighty  powers — Fire  and  Water. 

The  amount  of  land  swept  away  each  year  in 
mud,  and  borne  to  the  ocean  by  the  River  Ganges, 
was  roughly  reckoned,  and  also  the  amount  of  land 
believed  to  have  been  upheaved  several  feet  in  the 
great  Chilian  earthquake. 

It  was  found  that  the  river,  steadily  working 
month  by  month,  would  require  some  four  hundred 
years  to  carry  to  the  sea  the  same  weight  of  ma- 
terial, which  in  one  tremendous  effort  was  upheaved 
by  the  fiery  underground  forces. 

Yet  we  must  not  carry  this  distinction  too  far. 
Fire  does  not  always  work  suddenly,  or  water 
slowly;  witness  the  slow  rising  and  sinking  of  land 
in  parts  of  the  earth,  continuing  through  centuries; 
and  witness  also  the  effects  of  great  floods  and 
storms. 


CHAPTER   V. 

WHAT    ROCKS    ARE    MADE    OF. 

"God  ....  which  doeth  great  things  and  unsearchable;  marvellous 
things  without  number." — JOB  v.  8,  9. 

THE    crust    of  the    earth    is    made   of  rock.     But 
what  is  rock  made  of? 

Certain  leading  divisions  of  rocks  have  been  al- 
ready considered: 

The  Water-made  Rocks; 

The  Fire-made  Rocks,  both  Plutonic  and  Volcanic; 

The  Water-and-Fire-made  Rocks. 

The  first  of  these — Water-made  Rocks — may  be 
subdivided  into  three  classes.     These  are, — 
I.  FLINT  ROCKS; 
II.  CLAY  ROCKS; 

III.  LIME  ROCKS. 

This  is  not  a  book  in  which  it  would  be  wise  to 
go  closely  into  the  mineral  nature  of  rocks.  Two 
or  three  leading  thoughts  may,  however,  be  given. 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  41 

Does  it  not  seem  strange  that  the  hard  and  solid 
rocks  should  be  in  great  measure  formed  of  the 
same  substances  which  form  the  thin  invisible  air 
floating  around  us? 

Yet  so  it  is.  There  is  a  certain  gas  called 
Oxygen  Gas.  Without  that  gas  you  could  not 
live  many  minutes.  Banish  it  from  the  room  in 
which  you  are  sitting,  and  in  a  few  minutes  you 
will  die. 

This  gas  makes  up  nearly  one  quarter  by  weight 
of  the  atmosphere  round  the  whole  earth. 

The  same  gas  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
oceans;  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  water  is 
oxygen. 

It  plays  also  an  important  part  in  rocks;  for 
about  half  the  material  of  the  entire  earth's  crust 
is  OXYGEN. 

Another  chief  material  in  rocks  is  SILICON.  This 
makes  up  one  more  quarter  of  the  crust,  leaving 
only  one  quarter  to  be  accounted  for.  Silicon 
mixed  with  oxygen  makes  silica  or  quartz.  There 
are  few  rocks  which  have  not  a  large  amount  of 
quartz  in  them.  Common  flint,  sandstones,  and 
the  sand  of  our  shores,  are  made  of  quartz,  and 
therefore  belong  to  the  first  class  of  Silicious  or 
Flint  Rocks.  Granites  and  lavas  are  about  one- 


The  World's  Foundations. 


half  quartz.  The  beautiful  stones,  amethyst,  agate, 
chalcedony,  and  jasper,  are  all  different  kinds  of 
quartz. 

Another  chief  material  in  rocks  is  a  white  metal 
called  ALUMINIUM.  United  to  oxygen  it  becomes 
alumina,  the  chief  substance  in  clay.  Rocks  of 
this  kind — such  as  clays,  and  also  the  lovely  blue 
gem,  sapphire — are  called  Argillaceous  Rocks,  from 
the  Latin  word  for  clay,  and  belong  to  the  second 
class.  Such  rocks  keep  fossils  well. 

Another  is  CALCIUM.  United  to  oxygen  and 
carbonic  acid,  it  makes  carbonate  of  lime,  the 
chief  substance  in  limestone;  so  all  limestones 
belong  to  the  third  class  of  Calcareous  or  Lime 
Rocks. 

Other  important  materials  might  be  mentioned, 
such  as  MAGNESIUM,  POTASSIUM,  SODIUM,  IRON, 
CARBON,  SULPHUR,  HYDROGEN,  CHLORINE,  and 

NITROGEN.  These,  with  many  more,  not  so  com- 
mon, make  up  the  remaining  quarter  of  the  earth- 
crust. 

Carbon  plays  as  important  a  part  in  animal  and 
vegetable  life  as  silicon  in  rocks.  Carbon  is  most 
commonly  seen  in  three  distinct  forms — as  char- 
coal, as  black-lead,  and  as  the  pure  brilliant  dia- 
mond. Carbon  united,  in  a  particular  proportion, 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  43 

to  oxygen  forms  carbonic  acid,  and  carbonic  acid 
united,  in  a  particular  proportion,  to  lime  forms 
limestone. 

HYDROGEN  united  to  oxygen  forms  water.  Each 
of  these  two  gases  is  invisible  alone,  but  when  they 
meet  and  mingle  they  form  a  liquid. 

NITROGEN  united  to  oxygen  and  to  a  small 
quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas  forms  our  at- 
mosphere. 

Rocks  of  pure  flint,  pure  clay,  or  pure  lime,  are 
rarely  or  never  met  with.  Most  rocks  are  made 
up  of  several  different  substances  melted  together. 

In  the  fire-built  rocks  no  remains  of  animals 
are  found,  though  in  water-built  rocks  they  abound. 
Water-built  rocks  are  sometimes  divided  into  two 
classes — those  which  only  contain  occasional  ani- 
mal remains,  and  those  which  are  more  or  less 
built  up  of  the  skeletons  of  animals. 

There  are  some  exceedingly  tiny  creatures  in- 
habiting the  ocean,  called  Rhizopods.  They  live 
in  minute  shells,  the  largest  of  which  may  be  al- 
most the  size  of  a  grain  of  wheat,  but  by  far  the 
greater  number  are  invisible  as  shells  without  a 
microscope,  and  merely  show  as  fine  dust.  The 
Rhizopods  are  of  different  shapes,  sometimes  round, 


44  The  World's  Foundations. 

sometimes  spiral,  sometimes  having  only  one  cell, 
sometimes  having  several  cells.  In  the  latter  case 
a  separate  animal  lives  in  each  cell.  The  animal 
is  of  the  very  simplest  as  well  as  the  smallest 
kind.  He  has  not  even  a  mouth  or  a  stomach, 
but  can  take  in  food  at  any  part  of  his  body. 

These  rhizopods  live  in  the  oceans  in  enormous 
numbers.  Tens  of  millions  are  ever  coming  into 
existence,  living  out  their  tiny  lives,  dying,  and 
sinking  to  the  bottom. 

There  upon  the  ocean-floor  gather  their  remains, 
a  heaped-up  multitude  of  minute  skeletons  or  shells, 
layer  forming  over  layer. 

It  was  long  suspected  that  the  white  chalk  cliffs 
of  England  were  built  up  in  some  such  manner  as 
this  through  past  ages.  And  now  at  length  proof 
has  been  found,  in  the  shape  of  mud  dredged  up 
from  the  ocean-bottom — mud  entirely  composed 
of  countless  multitudes  of  these  little  shells,  drop- 
ping there  by  myriads,  and  becoming  slowly  joined 
together  in  one  mass. 

Just  so,  it  is  believed,  were  the  white  chalk 
cliffs  built — gradually  prepared  on  the  ocean-floor, 
and  then  slowly  or  suddenly  upheaved,  so  as  to 
become  a  part  of  the  dry  land. 

Think   what   the  enormous   numbers  must  have 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  45 

been  of  tiny  living  creatures,  out  of  whose  shells 
the  wide  reaches  of  white  chalk  cliffs  have  been 
made.  Chalk  cliffs  and  chalk  layers  extend  from 
Ireland,  through  England  and  France,  as  far  as 
to  the  Crimea.  In  the  south  of  Russia  they  are 
said  to  be  six  hundred  feet  thick.  Yet  one  cubic 
inch  of  chalk  is  calculated  to  hold  the  remains  of 
more  than  one  million  rhizopods.  How  many 
countless  millions  upon  millions  must  have  gone 
to  the  whole  structure !  How  long  must  the  work 
of  building  up  have  lasted ! 

These  little  shells  do  not  always  drop  softly  and 
evenly  to  the  ocean-floor,  to  become  quietly  part 
of  a  mass  of  shells.  Sometimes,  where  the  ocean 
is  shallow  enough  for  the  waves  to  have  power  be- 
low, or  where  land  currents  can  reach,  they  are 
washed  about,  and  thrown  one  against  another,  and 
ground  into  fine  powder;  and  the  fine  powder  be- 
comes in  time,  through  different  causes,  solid  rock. 

Limestone  is  made  in  another  way  also.  In  the 
warm  waters  of  the  South  Pacific  Ocean  there  are 
many  islands,  large  and  small,  which  have  been 
formed  in  a  wonderful  manner  by  tiny  living  work- 
ers. The  workers  are  soft  jelly-like  creatures,  called 
polyps,  who  labor  together  in  building  up  great 
walls  and  masses  of  coral. 


46  The   World's  Foundations. 

They  never  carry  on  their  work  above  the  surface 
of  the  water,  for  in  the  air  they  would  die.  But 
the  waves  break  the  coral,  and  heap  it  up  above 
high-water  mark,  and  carry  earth  and  seeds  to  drop 
there  till  at  length  a  small  low -lying  island  is 
formed. 

The  waves  not  only  heap  up  broken  coral,  but 
they  grind  the  coral  into  fine  powder,  and  from 
this  powder  limestone  rock  is  made,  just  as  it  is 
from  the  powdered  shells  of  rhizopods.  The  ma- 
terial used  by  the  polyps  in  building  the  coral  is 
chiefly  lime,  which  they  have  the  power  of  gather- 
ing out  of  the  water,  and  the  fine  coral-powder, 
sinking  to  the  bottom,  makes  large  quantities  of 
hard  limestone.  Soft  chalk  is  rarely,  if  ever,  found 
near  the  coral  islands. 

Limestones  are  formed  in  the  same  manner  from 
the  grinding  up  of  other  sea-shells  and  fossils,  va- 
rious in  kind;  the  powder  becoming  gradually  united 
into  solid  rock. 

There  is  yet  another  way  in  which  limestone  is 
made,  quite  different  from  all  these.  Sometimes 
streams  of  water  have  a  large  quantity  of  lime  in 
them;  and  these  as  they  flow  will  drop  layers  of 
lime  which  harden  into  rock.  Or  a  lime -laden 
spring,  making  its  way  through  the  roof  of  an 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  47 

underground  cavern,  will  leave  all  kinds  of  fantas- 
tic arrangements  of  limestone  wherever  its  waters 
can  trickle  and  drip.  Such  a  cavern  is  called  a 
"stalactite  cave." 

So  there  are  different  kinds  of  fossil  rock-making. 
There  may  be  rocks  made  of  other  materials,  with 
fossils  simply  buried  in  them.  There  may  be  rocks 
made  entirely  of  fossils,  which  have  gathered  in 
masses  as  they  sank  to  the  sea-bottom,  and  have 
there  become  simply  and  lightly  joined  together. 
There  may  be  rocks  made  of  the  ground-up  powder 
of  fossils,  pressed  into  a  solid  substance  or  united 
by  some  other  substance. 

Rocks  are  also  often  formed  of  whole  fossils,  or 

ones,  or  shells,  bound  into  one  by  some  natural 
soft  sticky  cement,  which  has  gathered  round  them 
and  afterwards  grown  hard,  like  the  cement  which 
holds  together  the  stones  in  a  wall. 

The  tiny  rhizopods,*  which  have  so  large  a  share 
in  chalk  and  limestone  making,  are  among  the 
smallest  and  simplest  known  kinds  of  animal  life. 

There  are  also  some  very  minute  forms  of  vege- 
table life,  which  exist  in  equally  vast  numbers, 
called  Diatoms.  For  a  long  while  they  were  be- 

•  Literal  meaning  of  word,  Rwtfoot. 


48  The  World's  Foundations. 

lieved  to  be  living  animals,  like  the  rhizopods. 
Scientific  men  are  now,  however,  pretty  well  agreed 
that  they  really  are  only  vegetables  or  plants. 

The  diatoms  have  each  one  a  tiny  shell  or  shield, 
not  made  of  lime  like  the  rhizopod-shells,  but  of 
flint.  Some  think  that  common  flint  may  be  formed 
of  these  tiny  shells. 

Again,  there  is  a  kind  of  rock  called  Mountain 
Meal,  which  is  entirely  made  up  of  the  remains  of 
diatoms.  Examined  under  the  microscope,  thou- 
sands of  minute  flint  shields  of  various  shapes  are 
seen.  This  rock,  or  earth,  is  very  abundant  in 
many  places,  and  is  sometimes  used  as  a  polishing 
powder.  In  Bohemia  there  is  a  layer  of  it  no  less 
than  fourteen  feet  thick.  Yet  so  minute  are  the 
shells  of  which  it  is  composed,  that  one  square  inch 
of  rock  is  said  to  contain  about  four  thousand  mil- 
lions of  them.  Each  one  of  these  millions  is  a 
separate  distinct  fossil. 

One  more  kind  of  fossil  substance  must  be  touched 
upon  before  the  close  of  this  chapter,  a  kind  very 
familiar  to  all  of  us  from  earliest  childhood — that 
of  Coal. 

What  should  we  do  without  coal  ?  How  nec- 
essary it  is  to  comfort,  nay,  even  to  life,  in  cold 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  49 

countries  where  an  abundance  of  firewood  does  not 
exist !  Yet  how  many  use  it,  day  after  day  and 
year  after  year,  without  a  thought  of  the  manner 
in  which  it  has  been  provided  for  them  ! 

Coal  comes  from  underground.  Mines,  low-sunk, 
and  extending  far,  in  some  places  even  beneath  the 
sea,  are  made  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  up  coal, 
to  be  used  in  thousands  of  homes.  But  how  did 
the  coal  get  there  ? 

If  you  examine  carefully  a  piece  of  coal,  you  will 
find,  more  or  less  clearly,  markings  like  those  which 
are  seen  in  a  piece  of  wood.  Sometimes  they  are 
very  distinct  indeed.  Coal  abounds  in  impressions 
of  leaves,  ferns,  and  stems,  and  fossil  remains  of 
plants  and  tree-trunks  are  found  in  numbers  in 
coal-seams. 

Coal  is  a  vegetable  substance.  The  wide  coal- 
fields of  Britain  and  other  lands  are  the  fossil  re- 
mains of  vast  forests. 

Long  ages  ago,  as  it  seems,  broad  and  luxuriant 
forests  flourished  over  the  earth.  In  many  parts 
generation  after  generation  of  trees  lived  and  died 
and  decayed,  leaving  no  trace  of  their  existence, 
beyond  a  little  layer  of  black  mould,  soon  to  be 
carried  away  by  wind  and  water.  Coal  could  only 
be  formed  where  there  were  bogs  and  quagmires. 


50  The   World's  Foundations. 

But  in  bogs  and  quagmires,  and  in  shallow  lakes 
of  low-lying  lands,  there  were  great  gatherings  of 
slowly -decaying  vegetable  remains,  trees,  plants 
and  ferns  all  mingling  together.  Then  after  a  while 
the  low  lands  would  sink  and  the  ocean  pouring 
in  would  cover  them  with  layers  of  protecting  sand 
or  mud;  and  sometimes  the  land  would  rise  again, 
and  fresh  forests  would  spring  into  life,  only  to  be 
in  their  turn  overwhelmed  anew,  and  covered  by 
fresh  sandy  or  earthy  deposits. 

These  buried  forests  lay  through  the  ages  follow- 
ing, slowly  hardening  into  the  black  and  shining 
coal,  so  useful  now  to  man. 

The  coal  is  found  thus  in  thin  or  thick  seams, 
with  other  rock-layers  between,  telling  each  its 
history  of  centuries  long  past.  In  one  place  no 
less  than  sixteen  such  beds  of  coal  are  found,  one 
below  another,  each  divided  from  the  next  above 
and  the  next  underneath  by  beds  of  clay  or  sand 
or  shale.  The  forests  could  not  have  grown  in  the 
sea,  and  the  earth-layers  could  not  have  been  formed 
on  land,  therefore  many  land  risings  and  sinkings 
must  have  taken  place.  Each  bed  probably  tells  the 
tale  of  a  succession  of  forests. 

There  are  in  Great  Britain  about  twelve  thousand 
square  miles  of  coal-fields.  In  France,  in  Spain,  in 


What  Rocks  are  Made  of.  51 

Belgium,  though  coal-fields  do  exist,  the  amount 
is  much  less.  In  North  America  there  are  about 
two  hundred  and  eight  thousand  square  miles  of 
coal-fields.  Little  danger  of  the  supply  running 
short. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ROCK-LAYERS. 

"  Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  ever  Thou  hadst  fonred 
the  earth  and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art 
God." — PSA.  xc.  2. 

BEFORE  going  on  to  a  sketch  of  the  early  ages  of 
the  Earth's  history — ages  stretching  back  long  long 
before  the  time  of  Adam — it  is  needful  to  think  yet 
for  a  little  longer  about  the  manner  in  which  that 
history  is  written,  and  the  way  in  which  it  has  to 
be  read. 

For  the  record  is  one  difficult  to  make  out,  and 
its  style  of  expression  is  often  dark  and  mysterious. 
There  is  scarcely  any  other  volume  in  the  great 
Book  of  Nature,  which  the  student  is  so  likely  to 
misread  as  this  one.  It  is  very  needful,  therefore, 
to  hold  the  conclusions  of  geologists  with  a  light 
grasp,  guarding  each  with  a  "perhaps"  or  a  "may- 
be." Many  an  imposing  edifice  has  been  built, 
in  geology,  upon  a  rickety  foundation  which  has 
speedily  given  way. 


Rock-Layers.  53 


In  all  ages  of  the  world's  history  up  to  the  pre- 
sent day,  rock-making  has  taken  place — fire-made 
rocks  being  fashioned  underground,  and  water-made 
rocks  being  fashioned  above  ground  though  under 
water. 

Also  in  all  ages  different  kinds  of  rocks  have  been 
fashioned  side  by  side — limestone  in  one  part  of  the 
world,  sandstone  in  another,  chalk  in  another,  clay 
in  another,  and  so  on.  There  have,  it  is  true,  been 
ages  when  one  kind  seems  to  have  been  the  chief 
kind — an  age  of  limestone,  or  an  age  of  chalk. 
But  even  then  there  were  doubtless  more  rock- 
buildings  going  on,  though  not  to  so  great  an 
extent.  On  the  other  hand,  there  may  have  been 
ages  during  which  no  limestone  was  made,  or  no 
chalk,  or  no  clay.  As  a  general  rule,  however,  the 
various  sorts  of  rock-building  have  probably  gone 
on  together.  This  was  not  so  well  understood  by 
early  geologists  as  it  is  now. 

The  difficulty  is  often  great  of  disentangling  the 
different  strata,  and  saying  which  was  earlier  and 
which  later  formed. 

Still,  by  close  and  careful  study  of  the  rocks 
which  compose  the  earth's  crust,  a  certain  kind 
of  order  is  found  to  exist,  more  or  less  followed 
out  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  When  each  layer 


54  The   World's  Foundations. 

was  formed  in  England  or  in  America,  the  geol- 
ogist cannot  possibly  say.  He  can,  however,  as- 
sert, in  either  place,  that  a  certain  mass  of  rock 
was  formed  before  a  certain  other  mass  in  that 
same  place,  even  though  the  two  may  seem  to 
lie  side  by  side;  for  he  knows  that  they  were  so 
placed  only  by  upheaval,  and  that  once  upon  a 
time  the  one  lay  beneath  the  other. 

The  geologist  can  go  further.  He  can  often  de- 
clare that  a  certain  mass  of  rock  in  America  and  a 
certain  mass  of  rock  in  England,  quite  different  in 
kind,  were  probably  built  up  at  about  the  same  time. 
How  long  ago  that  time  was  he  would  be  rash  to 
attempt  to  say;  but  that  the  two  belong  to  the 
same  age  he  has  good  reason  for  supposing. 

We  find  rocks  piled  upon  rocks  in  a  certain  order, 
so  that  we  may  generally  be  pretty  confident  that 
the  lower  rocks  were  first  made  and  the  upper  rocks 
the  latest  built.  Further  than  this,  we  find  in  all  the 
said  layers  of  water-built  rocks  signs  of  past  life. 

As  already  stated,  much  of  this  life  was  ocean- 
life,  though  not  all. 

Below  the  sea,  as  the  rock-layers  were  being 
formed,  bit  by  bit,  of  earth  dropping  from  the 
ocean  to  the  ocean's  floor,  sea-creatures  lived 
out  their  lives  and  died  by  thousands,  to  sink 


Rock-Layers.  55 


to  that  same  floor.  Millions  passed  away,  dissolv- 
ing and  leaving  no  trace  behind;  but  thousands 
were  preserved — shells  often,  animals  sometimes. 

Nor  was  this  all.  For  now  and  again  some  part 
of  the  sea-bottom  was  upheaved,  slowly  or  quickly, 
till  it  became  dry  land.  On  this  dry  land  animals 
lived  again,  and  thousands  of  them,  too,  died,  and 
their  bones  crumbled  into  dust.  But  here  and  there 
one  was  caught  in  bog  or  frost,  and  his  remains 
were  preserved  till,  through  lapse  of  ages,  they 
turned  to  stone. 

Yet  again  that  land  would  sink,  and  over  it  fresh 
layers  were  formed  by  the  ocean-waters,  with  fresh 
remains  of  sea-animals  buried  in  with  the  layers  of 
sand  or  lime;  and  once  more  the  sea-bottom  would 
rise,  perhaps  then  to  continue  as  dry  land,  until  the 
day  when  man  should  discover  and  handle  these 
hidden  remains. 

Now  note  a  remarkable  fact  as  to  these  fossils, 
scattered  far  and  wide  through  the  layers  of  strati- 
fied rock. 

In  the  uppermost  and  latest  built  rocks  the  ani- 
mals found  are  the  same,  in  great  measure,  as  those 
which  now  exist  upon  the  earth. 

Leaving  the  uppermost  rocks,  and  examining 
those  which  lie  a  little  way  below,  we  find  a  dif- 


56  The   World's  Foundations. 

ference.  Some  are  still  the  same,  and  others,  if  not 
quite  the  same,  are  very  much  like  what  we  have 
now;  but  here  and  there  a  creature  of  a  different 
form  appears. 

Go  deeper  still,  and  the  kinds  of  animals  change 
further.  Fewer  and  fewer  resemble  those  which 
now  range  the  earth;  more  and  more  belong  to 
other  species. 

Descend  through  layer  after  layer  till  we  come  to 
rocks  built  in  earliest  ages  and  not  one  fossil  shall 
we  find  precisely  the  same  as  one  animal  living 
now. 

So  not  only  are  the  rocks  built  in  successive  order, 
stratum  after  stratum  belonging  to  age  after  age 
in  the  past,  but  fossil-remains  also  are  found  in  suc- 
cessive order,  kind  after  kind  belonging  to  past  age 
after  age. 

Although  in  the  first  instance  the  succession  of 
fossils  was  understood  by  means  of  the  succession 
of  rock-layers,  yet  in  the  second  place  the  arrange- 
ment of  rock-layers  is  made  more  clear  by  the 
means  of  these  very  fossils. 

A  geologist,  looking  at  the  rocks  in  America,  can 
say  which  there  were  first-formed,  which  second- 
formed,  which  third-formed.  Also,  looking  at  the 
rocks  in  England,  he  can  say  which  there  were  first- 


Rock-Layers.  57 


formed,  second-formed,  third-formed.  He  would, 
however,  find  it  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
say  which  among  any  of  the  American  rocks  was 
formed  at  about  the  same  time  as  any  particular 
one  among  the  English  rocks,  were  it  not  for  the 
help  afforded  him  by  these  fossils. 

Just  as  the  regular  succession  of  rock-strata  has 
been  gradually  learnt,  so  the  regular  succession  of 
different  fossils  is  becoming  more  and  more  under- 
stood. It  is  now  known  that  some  kinds  of  fossils 
are  always  found  in  the  oldest  rocks,  and  in  them 
only;  that  some  kinds  are  always  found  in  the  new- 
est rocks,  and  in  them  only;  that  some  fossils  are 
rarely  or  never  found  lower  than  certain  layers,  that 
some  fossils  are  rarely  or  never  found  higher  than 
certain  other  layers. 

So  this  fossil  arrangement  is  growing  into  quite  a 
history  of  the  past.  And  a  geologist,  looking  at 
certain  rocks,  pushed  up  from  underground,  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America,  can  say:  "These  are  very  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  rocks,  it  is  true,  and  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  say  how  long  the  building  up  of  the  one 
might  have  taken  place  before  or  after  the  other. 
But  I  see  that  in  both  these  rocks  there  are  exactly 
the  same  kinds  of  fossil-remains,  differing  from  those 
in  the  rocks  above  and  below.  I  conclude  therefore 


58  The   World's  Foundations. 

that  the  two  rocks  belong  to  about  the  same  great 
age  in  the  world's  past  history,  when  the  same  ani- 
mals were  living  upon  the  earth." 

Observing  and  reasoning  thus,  geologists  have 
drawn  up  a  general  plan  or  order  of  strata;  and  the 
whole  of  the  vast  masses  of  water-built  rocks 
throughout  the  world  have  been  arranged  in  a 
regular  succession  of  classes,  rising  step  by  step 
from  earliest  ages  up  to  the  present  time. 

First  there  are  three  grand  divisions: 

I.  PALEOZOIC,  OR  ANCIENT-LIFE  ROCKS; 
II.  MESOZOIC,  OR  MIDDLE-LIFE  ROCKS; 
III.  CAINOZOIC,  OR  NEW-LIFE  ROCKS. 

These,  with  their  chief  sub-divisions,  are  given 
in  a  short  list  at  the  close  of  the  chapter,  begin- 
ning with  the  earliest. 

Below  the  Ancient  Rocks  lie  what  some  sup- 
pose to  be  the  Frst-formed  Rocks,  beyond  which 
we  know  nothing. 

In  a  general  way  this  classification  will  serve 
wherever  geology  is  studied.  Some  geologists  ar- 
range differently,  but  the  variations  are  slight.  In 
certain  countries  some  of  the  classes  or  sub-divi- 
sions may  be  entirely  lacking,  yet  the  order  kept 
will  be  the  same.  The  Devonian  may  be  absent, 


Rock-Layers.  59 


but  if  present,  you  will  never  find  it  under  the 
Silurian,  or  above  the  Carboniferous.  The  Cre- 
taceous may  be  missing,  but  if  there,  it  will  not 
lie  beneath  the  Triassic  or  over  the  Miocene.  So 
also  with  others. 

The  following  list  of  names  should  be  from  time 
to  time  carefully  referred  to,  in  the  course  of  read- 
ing Part  II.  of  this  book. 


TABLE    OF    STRATA. 

Azoic,  OR  NO-LIFE  ROCKS. 

PRIMARY,  OR  PALEOZOIC,  OR  ANCIENT-LIFE 
ROCKS. 

1.  Laurentian. 

2.  Cambrian  1 

\  Age  of  Lower  Animals. 

3.  Silurian 

4.  Devonian. — Age  of  Fishes. 

5.  Carboniferous. — Age  of  Coal. 

6.  Permian. 

SECONDARY,  OR  MESOZOIC,  OR  MIDDLE-LIFE 
ROCKS. 

1.  Triassic  1 

,    }•  Age  of  Reptiles. 

2.  Jurassic] 

3.  Cretaceous. — Age  of  Chalk. 


60  The  World's  Foundations. 

TERTIARY,  OR  CAINOZOIC,  OR  NEW-LIFE 
ROCKS. 

1.  Eocene* 

2.  Miocene  f 

Age  of  Mammals. 

3.  Pliocene  \ 

4.  Pleistocene  § 

Post-Tertiary,  or  After  Tertiary  (Including  Age 
of  Man]. 

*  Literal  meaning — "Dawn-New."  f  "Less-New." 

J  "More-New."  §  "Most-New." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ROCK-BENDINGS. 

"  Wliere  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth?  declare, 
if  thou  hast  understanding.  Who  hath  laid  the  measure  thereof,  if  thou 
knowest?  .  .  .  Whereupon  are  the  foundations  thereof  made  to  sink? 
or  who  laid  the  corner-stone  thereof?" — JOB  xxxviii.  4-6.  (marg.) 

IT  is  said  that  the  whole  of  the  Stratified  Rocks 
forming  the  earth's  crust,  amount  altogether  to 
about  twenty  miles  in  thickness. 

This  only  means  that  if  you  could  take  each 
stratum  at  its  thickest  part,  and  arrange  it  in  its 
place  with  all  the  rest  above  and  below,  not  one 
of  the  whole  series  being  left  out,  the  depth  of 
the  entire  mass  would  probably  be  about  twenty 
miles.  In  the  same  manner  the  stratified  rocks 
of  Great  Britain  are  said  to  be  over  nine  miles 
thick,  though  in  no  one  spot  does  their  depth  ap- 
proach this  amount. 

For  nowhere  in  Great  Britain,  or  in  all  the  world, 


62  The   World's  Foundations, 

are  all  the  different  rocks  found  together  at  their 
greatest  thickness.  Where  one  kind  is  thick,  an- 
other beneath  it  is  thin,  and  other  rocks  are  al- 
together wanting.  Sometimes  several  of  the  up- 
permost have  either  been  never  formed  there,  or 
they  have  been  washed  away  since  formed. 

Under  New  York  these  rocks  are  said  to  be 
about  two  miles  and  a  half  thick,  and  in  Penn- 
sylvania at  least  seven  miles.  On  the  Continent 
there  are,  it  is  believed,  not  much  less  than  five 
miles  of  stratified  rocks,  without  counting  the  lower 
primary  layers.  So  the  depth  varies  greatly  in  dif- 
ferent parts. 

But  if  we  realize  that  these  vast  masses  have 
been  all  built  up,  as  it  seems,  under  the  ocean, 
grain  by  grain,  or  bit  by  bit,  or  shell  by  shell,  of 
sand  or  earth  or  animal  remains,  we  shall  find 
the  amount  to  be  wonderful. 

These  rock-strata  give  us  a  "chain  of  records"  of 
the  past,  but  the  chain  is  broken  in  many  places, 
and  many  links  are  wanting.  At  the  best,  the 
history  is  a  fragmentary  one,  with  great  gaps  and 
sudden  jumps,  and  chasms  which  the  geologist 
has  no  power  to  bridge  over  except  by  guesses. 

One  great  difficulty  in  reading  geology  arises  from 


W.  Foundat 


Rock- B endings.  63 


the  fact  that  it  is  a  volume  which  is  being  written 
chiefly  out  of  our  reach.  Dry  land  remains  from 
century  to  century  unchanged,  except  through  the 
yearly  loss  of  its  material,  stolen  by  frost  and  rain, 
rivers  and  sea — and  how  great  this  loss  is  few  know. 
But  dry  land  receives  no  additions  as  a  rule.  All 
the  building  up  of  new  land  goes  on  under  the 
ocean. 

It  would  be  an  immense  advantage  to  the  stu- 
dent if  he  could  occasionally  take  a  walk  under  the 
sea,  so  as  to  be  able  to  note,  not  only  the  carting 
away  of  material  from  dry  land,  but  the  building  up 
of  that  material  into  new  land  beneath  water.  For 
it  should  be  clearly  understood  and  remembered 
that  every  yard  of  fresh  mud  or  rock  formed  by  the 
sea  is  made  entirely  out  of  material  stolen  from  the 
land.  This  double  work  of  taking  away  from  the 
land  and  laying  down  upon  the  ocean  floor  goes  on 
incessantly;  but  only  one  half  of  it  can  we  see. 

And  indeed,  even  if  we  could  so  walk  under  the 
sea,  like  Southey's  Kahama,  it  would  avail  us  little, 
unless  we  could  watch  through  long  periods  of  time, 
with  unfailing  patience,  to  see  the  slow  and  gradual 
growth  of  the  building.  And  were  this  too  pos- 
sible, we  should  still  stand  in  need  of  some  power 
to  enable  us  to  look  into  the  far  dim  past,  and  to 


64  The   World's  Foundations. 

see  the  precise  manner  in  which  this  work  was  then 
carried  on. 

For  although  the  manner  of  rock-making  was 
then  probably  much  the  same  as  it  is  now,  we  have 
no  power  to  speak  positively  in  the  matter.  It  may 
have  taken  place  exactly  as  it  now  takes  place,  or 
various  causes  may  have  combined  to  make  both 
the  pulling  down  and  the  building  up  very  much 
more  rapid  than  they  are  at  present.  It  is  easy  to 
conjecture  one  way  or  another,  but  we  cannot 
know  which  really  was  the  case. 

The  words  "stratum"  and  "layer"  have  been  used 
often  in  the  last  few  chapters.  Although  their 
meaning  is  much  the  same,  yet  each  has  its  own 
distinct  sense. 

A  "  stratum  "  may  consist  of  a  great  many  "  layers." 
In  a  stratum  of  limestone  there  are  generally  sev- 
eral thin  layers  of  limestone  one  over  another, 
making  up  the  whole  mass  or  stratum.  So  also  a 
stratum  of  coal  consists  of  few  or  many  layers  of 
coal.  The  "layer"  may  be  either  thick  or  thin,  and 
it  may  be  either  loose  or  joined  to  the  next  layer. 
The  "stratum"  means  the  whole  mass  of  one  kind 
of  rock,  lying  between  two  beds  or  strata  of  other 
kinds  of  rocks — strata  being  the  plural  of  stratum. 


Rock- Bending s.  65 


Suppose  you  had  a  great  pile  of  paper,  first  a 
number  of  blue  sheets,  over  them  a  number  of 
white  sheets,  then  a  few  pink  sheets,  over  them  a 
number  of  white  sheets  again,  then  a  few  green 
sheets.  Each  sheet  would  picture  a  "layer,"  but 
each  supply  of  one  color  lying  close  together  would 
picture  a  "stratum." 

A  "formation"  means  the  whole  set  of  strata  be- 
lieved to  belong  to  one  particular  age  or  part  of  an 
age  in  the  past.  Rocks  of  different  kinds,  in  dif- 
ferent places,  if  containing  the  same  kinds  of  vege- 
table and  animal  fossils,  are  said  to  belong  to  the 
same  "formation." 

Rocks  are  not  commonly  found,  as  they  were 
first  built  up,  in  flat  layers.  Sometimes  they  are 
bent,  curved,  slanting;  sometimes  pushed  into  an 
upright  position;  sometimes  for  a  short  space  even 
turned  quite  upside  down,  so  that  a  top  stratum  is 
seen  for  a  short  distance  actually  underneath  a 
lower  and  earlier-formed  stratum,  with  plain  marks 
of  the  catastrophe. 

Sometimes  it  is  found  that  the  lower  rocks  are 
crumpled,  and  bent,  and  distorted,  while  over  these 
lie  some  perfectly  smooth  flat  layers.  This  shows 
that  the  disturbance  of  the  lower  rocks  must  have 


66  The  World's  Foundations. 

taken  place  before  the  upper  layers  were  dropped 
by  the  sea.  After  some  great  sudden  upheaving, 
or  some  slow  crushing  together  of  the  rocks,  a  calm 
time  followed  under  the  ocean,  and  sand  or  earth 
layers  were  quietly  formed,  afterwards  not  to  be 
bent  or  broken  by  the  gentle  uplifting  of  that  sea- 
bottom  out  of  the  sea. 

It  seems  strange  to  speak  of  rocks  being  bent. 
But  under  tremendous  pressure  even  the  hardest 
rocks  will  yield,  curving  and  folding  like  soft  clay. 
Also  many  rocks  are  known  not  to  be  so  hard  as 
we  commonly  see  them,  when  buried  underground 
and  sheltered  from  the  air. 

Any  one  who  has  been  through  some  of  our  great 
iron-working  manufactories,  and  has  seen  how  cold 
iron  can  be  cut  and  pierced,  twisted  and  bent,  by 
the  deliberate  exercise  of  great  force,  will  wonder 
less  at  the  effects  of  pressure  on  rock.  Many  of 
these  disturbances  past  were  doubtless  calm  and 
gradual,  though  others  must  have  been  sudden  and 
startling — even  as  now,  gentle  and  slow  forces 
work  side  by  side  with  fierce  and  terrific  ones. 
More  of  this  later. 

On  one  of  the  arms  of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne,  as 
the  tourist  goes  by  steamer  towards  the  little  vil- 
lage of  Fluellen,  he  may  note  a  remarkable  instance 


Rock- B endings.  67 


of  this  rock-bending,  in  the  cliffs  to  the  left.  It  is 
in  one  part  as  if  a  gigantic  hand  had  grasped  the 
smoothly  lying  rock-layers,  and  had  deliberately 
crushed  them  into  a  variety  of  fantastic  crumplings, 
as  a  man  might  crush  a  piece  of  paper  in  his  fingers. 

Rock-foldings  vary  in  size  from  tiny  bends  an 
inch  in  depth,  to  great  wrinklings  or  creasings  of 
the  earth's  crust,  extending  through  miles  of  coun- 
try. Many  a  range  of  mountains  is  an  example 
of  such  huge  wave-like  bendings,  each  crease  or 
wrinkle,  divided  by  a  hollow  from  the  next,  being 
thousands  of  feet  in  depth. 

If  no  after-change  took  place,  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  trace  in  unbroken  continuance  the  lines 
of  the  bent  layers,  running  up  each  mountain  and 
down  each  hollow.  Take  half-a-dozen  pieces  of 
thick  cloth,  and  fold  them  backwards  and  forwards 
into  several  massive  plaits,  to  make  the  matter 
more  clear.  Each  piece  of  cloth  rising  and  falling 
through  the  bends  will  picture  a  layer  rising  and 
falling  through  the  mountain-folds. 

But  in  reality  the  upper  layers  cannot  be  so 
traced,  for  mountains  do  not  remain  unchanged. 
Frost  and  rain,  wind  and  torrent,  glacier  and  ava- 
lanche, are  ever  pursuing  their  work  of  destruc- 
tion. The  mountains  are  lower  now  than  they 


68      .  The  World's  Foundations. 

were  a  hundred  years  ago,  for  they  are  incessantly 
losing  a  part  of  their  material.  Loose  soil  is 
washed  away,  stones  are  carried  off,  crags  and  pre- 
cipices crumble  and  break,  and  gradually  whole 
masses  are  swept  from  the  exposed  summits,  leav- 
ing bare  the  underlying  rocks,  which  still  are 
buried  low  on  the  more  sheltered  mountain-sides. 

Some  chapters  back  I  spoke  of  the  slips  and 
slidings  likely  to  take  place  in  the  upper  stories 
of  a  house,  in  consequence  of  lower-story  altera- 
tions. 

Now  these  slips  and  slidings  have  actually'taken 
place  in  the  earth-crust.  As  the  mountains  were 
upheaved,  and  as  low-lying  plains  were  lifted  higher 
— whether  by  slow  or  sudden  action  we  cannot 
always  know — there  were  often  slips  or  displace- 
ments in  the  various  rocks  disturbed  by  such  move- 
ments. These  slips  are  called  faults,  both  by 
geologists  and  by  miners.  A  "fault"  is  found 
when  a  mass  of  rock,  containing  sometimes  several 
different  strata,  has  slipped  down  to  a  lower  level 
than  the  rocks  adjoining,  so  that  each  layer  is 
separated  from  what  was  once  a  continuation  of  it- 
self in  the  other  mass.  These  "  faults  "  may  be  a 
matter  of  a  few  inches  or  of  hundreds  of  feet.  Such 
a  fault  in  a  coal-mine,  if  extensive,  is  a  serious 


Rock-B endings.  69 


matter,  for  the  seam  of  coal  will  suddenly  cease, 
and  will  have  to  be  sought  for  elsewhere.  The 
rocks  adjoining  having  slipped  down,  in  conse- 
quence of  deep  underground  disturbances,  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  coal-seam  will  lie  lower  also. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ICE-WORK, 
"lie  cutteth  out  rivers  among  the  rocks." — JOB  xxviii.  10. 

IN  pieces  of  rock  there  are  found  often  curious 
markings,  telling  each  its  little  tale  of  bygone 
days.  Sometimes  a  bit  of  sandstone  is  dented  over 
with  small  round  holes  or  pocks,  one  here  or  there 
breaking  into  the  rim  of  its  next  neighbor;  these  are 
traces  of  raindrops  which  fell  long  long  ago.  Such 
markings  may  be  seen  upon  the  sand  of  the  sea- 
shore, commonly  remaining  only  a  short  time  be- 
cause washed  away  by  the  next  tide  or  shower. 
But  in  certain  cases  the  sand  has  been  left  un- 
disturbed to  retain  the  traces  of  the  last  shower 
which  it  received  in  its  soft  state,  before  hardening 
into  rock. 

Or  again  a  piece  of  sandstone  may  be  seen  to 
have  softly-rounded  furrows,  running  from  one  end 
to  the  other.  Here  again  are  water-marks.  Did 


Ice  -  Work.  7 1 


you  never  note  how  the  retreating  tide  leaves  often 
upon  the  sand  tiny  ridges  and  hollows  side  by  side, 
which  the  next  tide  smooth  away  only  that  fresh 
ones  may  be  formed?  These  ridges  are  caused 
by  the  movements  of  the  waves.  After  a  storm 
they  are  of  a  larger  size;  and  it  is  said  that  on  the 
Goodwin  Sands  they  are  often  two  feet  or  more 
in  height.  Hardened  sandstone  sometimes  bears 
these  wave-marks,  which  were  imprinted  upon  it 
when  soft. 

Again,  stones  are  sometimes  found,  curiously 
marked  with  lines,  as  if  they  had  been  polished  and 
scratched,  not  anyhow  and  in  all  directions,  but  in 
a  regular  way.  Sometimes  one  set  of  lines  will  run 
across  another  set,  or  there  will  be  deep  scorings  in 
the  midst  of  delicate  even  lines,  but  as  a  general 
rule  these  scratchings  all  lie  straight  along  the 
greatest  length  of  the  stone.  Such  stones  exist 
in  great  numbers,  and  they  were  long  a  serious 
puzzle  to  geologists.  Even  now  there  is  not  ab- 
solute certainty  as  to  the  real  cause,  though  the 
last  and  generally  believed  explanation  seems  most 
likely  to  be  the  true  one. 

If  you  were  taking  a  walk  in  Scotland,  you  might 
be  struck  with  the  appearance  of  certain  oft-recur- 
ring loose  gravel  and  sand  patches,  or  masses  of 


72  The   World's  Foundations. 


stones  and  clay,  or  heaps  of  loose  rocky 
debris.  They  do  not  lie  on  the  higher  mountains, 
but  abound  in  plains  and  valleys.  If  you  could  ex- 
amine a  very  little  way  underground,  just  below  the 
surface  layers  of  earth  or  gravel,  you  would  find  this 
unstratified  deposit  of  clay  and  rough  rocky  frag- 
ments reaching  through  miles  and  miles  of  country; 
not  only  in  Scotland,  but  also  in  many  parts  of 
Europe  and  of  North  America.  It  is  never,  how- 
ever, found  further  south  than  40  and  50  degrees 
North  Latitude.  The  same  rough  unstratified  de- 
posit is  found  in  countries  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, but  there  in  like  manner  it  is  not  seen 
further  north  than  40  and  50  degrees  South  Latitude. 
So  whatever  is  the  cause  of  this  singular  appearance, 
it  plainly  has  nothing  to  do  with  tropical  heat. 

The  deposit  is  made  up  chiefly  of  sand,  clay,  and 
stones,  sometimes  a  very  stiff  kind  of  clay,  with 
large  stones  and  boulders  scattered  all  through  it, 
and  this  in  Scotland  is  called  till.  Sometimes  there 
is  a  layer  of  such  boulder-filled  clay,  and  then  a 
layer  of  sand,  and  then  more  clay,  not  so  coarse 
and  stiff  in  character.  But  the  clay  is  never  really 
stratified,  and  the  stones  and  boulders  are  always 
scattered  pell-mell  through  it.  Another  name  by 
which  it  is  known  is  boulder-clay,  and  yet  another 


Ice -Work.  73 


is  drift.  In  places  it  is  as  much  as  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred feet  in  thickness. 

The  stones  and  boulders  are  found  as  a  rule  to 
have  been  broken  off  from  the  rocks  and  mountains 
in  the  neighborhood.  This  is  easily  seen,  by  com- 
paring the  rock  of  which  they  are  made  with  the 
rocks  of  which  the  mountains  are  made. 

It  is  the  stones  in  this  clay,  and  in  the  heaps  of 
loose  debris,  which  are  so  curiously  polished  and 
scratched.  They  are  of  every  size  from  tiny  peb- 
bles up  to  huge  blocks,  and  the  markings  are  of 
every  kind  from  the  finest  lines  to  deep-ploughed 
furrows. 

Not  only  are  the  loose  stones  thus  marked,  but 
large  spaces  of  rock  in  the  same  neighborhoods, 
bare  of  earth  and  sand,  will  be  found  to  be  in  a 
like  manner  polished  and  scratched  and  grooved. 

The  course  which  seems  to  be  followed  by  these 
stones  and  rock -markings  is  somewhat  singular. 
It  will  run  often  in  the  line  of  larger  valleys;  but 
small  valleys  seem  to  have  been  ignored  or  rather 
taken  at  right  angles,  and  hills  of  moderate  size 
have  proved  no  obstacle. 

In  addition  to  the  stones  and  rocks  scattered 
through  the  "till,"  there  are  very  remarkabje  blocks 
of  stone  often  seen,  not  only  on  low  plains  but 


74  The   World's  Foundations. 

perched  upon  high  mountains,  far  away  from  any 
other  rocks  of  a  like  nature.  They  are  called  "er- 
ratics "  from  the  erratic  way  in  which  they  seem 
to  have  journeyed  across  wide  tracts  of  country  and 
crossed  deep  valleys  before  reaching  their  present 
resting-places.  Erratics  exist  by  thousands  in  the 
same  countries  where  the  drift  is  found,  but  they 
are  never  seen  in  the  tropics.  They  too  are  often 
polished  and  scored  on  one  side,  like  the  smaller 
stones. 

On  the  Jura  Mountains  of  Switzerland  the  heaps 
of  stones,  polished  rock -surfaces,  and  scratched 
pebbles,  are  seen  in  abundance.  Also,  great  rock- 
masses  are  found  lying  there,  perfectly  different  in 
material  from  that  of  the  Jura  Mountains,  but  agree- 
ing with  that  of  the  Alps  some  fifty  miles  distant. 

Now,  what  power  could  have  borne  those  blocks, 
some  of  them  as  large  as  a  cottage,  not  only  across 
fifty  miles  of  low  grounds,  but  up  the  steep  sides  of 
the  Jura  ?  What  power  also  could  have  carried 
these  multitudes  of  rocks  and  stones,  polishing 
them,  scratching  them,  grooving  them,  mingling 
them  with  clay  and  earth,  and  scattering  the  whole 
mixture  in  lavish  profusion  up-hill  and  down-hill 
through  Jiundreds  of  miles  of  country  ? 

One  of  the  early  names  by  which  the  boulder- 


MAGNIFIED  SPECK   OF    EARTH. 
W.  Foundations. 


SCRATCHED  STONE. 


p.  74. 


Ice -Work.  75 


clay  was  known  was  Diluvium  or  Diluvial  Soil.  The 
name  sprang  from  the  idea  that  a  great  flood  might 
have  caused  the  deposit.  Some  thought  that  a 
flood  of  mud  had  burst  over  the  continents,  bearing 
rocks  and  stones  before  it  in  confusion.  Some  spoke 
of  an  ocean-flood,  and  of  mighty  waves  sweeping 
mud,  pebbles,  and  rock-boulders  down  valleys  and 
up  mountains  with  resistless  force.  That  water  has 
considerable  carrying  power  is  shown  by  mountain- 
torrents. 

The  thought  of  the  flood  in  the  days  of  Noah 
rises  naturally  to  mind  in  connection  with  this 
subject.  In  that  vast  rush  of  water  over  the  land, 
when  "all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were 
broken  up,"  what  might  not  have  been  accom- 
plished? 

It  is  well  to  bear  the  thought  in  memory  through 
the  study  of  geology.  Great  changes  probably  did 
then  take  place;  and  much  of  the  broken  and  con- 
fused condition  of  the  upper  rocks  and  soils,  which 
adds  to  the  perplexities  of  the  geologists,  may  be 
owing  to  that  comparatively  recent  event. 

Still,  no  mere  flood  of  water,  however  great, 
could  account  for  the  polishing  and  marking  of 
thousands  of  stones  and  rocks  in  so  regular  and 
systematic  a  manner.  Water  will  wash  stones  to- 


76  The  World's  Foundations. 

gather,  wearing  off  corners,  rounding  and  rubbing 
them  down,  but  it  will  not  mark  angular  stones 
from  end  to  end  with  sets  of  neat  lines  and  grooves. 
Also,  no  ocean  billows,  however  mighty,  could 
carry  granite  boulders  across  miles  of  country  and 
lift  them  up  to  heights  of  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  feet.  Both  water  and  mud  are  utterly  incapable 
of  such  a  task. 

In  the  higher  mountains  of  earth  there  is  a  per- 
petual collection  of  snow — a  vast  amount,  never 
melting  more  than  slightly  at  the  surface,  and  con- 
stantly receiving  fresh  additions. 

Now,  if  the  snow  had  no  means  of  parting  with 
its  extra  quantities — if  it  were  always  taking  to 
itself  new  supplies  and  never  giving  any  supplies 
away,  it  would  increase  to  an  enormous  extent. 
The  snowline,  or  boundary  of  perpetual  snow,  in- 
stead of  remaining  at  about  the  same  height  year 
after  year,  would  gradually  creep  lower  and  lower 
down  the  mountain-sides. 

But  there  are  modes  of  relief  for  the  over-laden 
mountain.  The  surface  of  the  snow  slowly  evapo- 
rates or  dries  away  in  the  sunshine.  Every  year 
the  summer-heat  thaws  great  quantities  of  snow 
in  the  lower  mountain  regions,  filling  rills  and 


Ice -Work.  77 


torrents  to  overflowing.  Also  great  masses  of  loose 
snow  break  away  from  time  to  time  and  rush  down 
the  mountain,  thus  lessening  the  weight  above. 

Nor  are  evaporation  and  thawing  and  avalanches 
the  only  outlets  provided. 

The  great  load  of  snow  on  the  mountain- summit 
squeezes  the  lower  layers  of  that  snow  into  solid 
ice.  For  ice  is  of  the  same  nature  as  snow,  only 
with  the  particles  packed  more  closely  together. 
The  ice  thus  formed  is  then  pressed  out  by  the 
same  weight  from  beneath  the  mass  above,  and 
creeps  quietly  down  through  the  nearest  valley. 
This  long  tongue  of  ice,  coming  from  under  the 
snow,  and  never  stopping  till  it  reaches  so  low 
down  the  mountain-side  that  its  further  progress 
is  checked  by  constant  melting,  is  called  a  Glacier. 
It  is,  in  fact,  a  frozen  stream — a  river  of  ice.  Every 
lofty  mountain  which  keeps  a  large  amount  of  snow 
on  its  summit  all  the  year  round,  has  its  glaciers. 

Some  glaciers,  especially  those  in  the  icy  regions 
of  the  far  north,  are  very  large,  many  miles  in 
length,  and  miles  in  width.  There  are  also  large 
glaciers  in  the  higher  mountains  of  Switzerland. 
A  glacier  is  like  a  river  in  many  respects,  but  the 
quickest  motions  of  a  glacier  are  very  slow,  com- 
pared with  the  most  sluggish  of  rivers.  You  might 


78  The   World's   Foundations. 

stand  for  hours  by  one  and  never  see  it  move;  for 
the  ice  creeps  along  its  rocky  bed  at  the  rate  of 
only  a  few  inches  a  day — sometimes  as  little  as  one 
inch,  never  more  than  fifty  inches.  One  mile  in 
fifteen  years  is  a  very  good  pace  for  glacier  ice. 

Yet  the  real  wonder  is,  not  that  these  great 
masses  of  solid  ice  should  move  slowly,  but  that 
they  should  move  at  all. 

As  the  ice-river  crawls  onward,  its  surface  is 
perpetually  cracking,  and  the  cracks  or  chasms  or 
crevasses  vary  in  size  from  a  few  inches  to  hundreds 
of  feet  in  width  and  depth.  The  cracks  are  com- 
monly across  the  bed  of  the  stream,  not  up  and 
down  it.  They  generally  come  when  a  sharper 
slope  in  the  ground  puts  a  strain  upon  the  ice; 
and  later,  when  the  bed  becomes  more  level,  the 
cracks  close  up  and  heal  or  freeze  together  again. 

There  are  commonly  down  both  sides  of  a  glacier 
long  trails  of  stones  and  rock-fragments,  which 
are  called  moraines.  Sometimes  one  or  two  or 
more  moraines  are  seen  down  the  middle  of  the 
glacier  also.  Those  at  the  side  are  fed  by  frag- 
ments falling  from  the  cliffs.  Those  in  the  middle 
are  supplied  by  some  other  glacier,  which  has 
joined  the  first. 

Such  rock-fragments,  if  falling  into  a  river,  would 


Ice -Work.  79 


be  ground  up  into  river-detritus — round  pebbles, 
sand  and  mud — and  carried  out  to  sea.  Falling  on 
the  solid  ice  of  the  glacier,  they  are  borne  slow- 
ly down  the  mountain-side,  till  the  ice  reaches  the 
spot  where  its  advance  is  checked,  and  there  they 
are  dropped  in  a  heap  called  a  terminal  moraine. 

Many  of  the  rock-fragments  fall  into  the  cre- 
vasses, and  find  their  way  to  the  bottom.  There, 
with  a  vast  number  of  other  fragments,  torn  by 
the  ice  from  the  rocky  bed,  they  are  dragged 
slowly  along;  and  as  they  move,  they  scratch  and 
polish  the  rocks  below,  and  are  in  their  turn 
scratched  and  polished  by  those  same  rocks.  A 
great  many  are  ground  into  powder,  thus  thicken- 
ing the  turbid  stream  which  commonly  flows  be- 
neath a  glacier,  during  at  least  part  of  its  course, 
and  rushes  out  at  the  terminal  moraine. 

Numbers  of  these  scratched  and  scored  stones 
may  be  found  in  a  terminal  moraine;  and  if  a  glacier 
could  be  removed  from  its  bed,  the  rocks  beneath 
would  be  found  throughout  its  course  to  be  marked 
in  a  like  manner. 

It  is  believed  that  in  olden  days,  there  were 
glaciers  far  lower  down  the  mountains,  and  farther 
south  and  wider  spread  than  now — huge  glaciers 
in  England,  in  Scotland,  in  Switzerland,  in  France, 


8o  The  World's  Foundations. 

in  other  parts  of  North  Europe,  and  in  North  Amer- 
ica, such  as  now  are  only  found  in  ice-bound  lands 
like  Greenland. 

For  the  marks  on  rocks  and  stones,  together 
with  other  signs  in  those  countries,  seem  plainly 
to  agree  with  the  marks  of  glaciers  as  seen  in  the 
present  day. 

There  was,  indeed,  another  explanation  offered, 
which  for  a  while  held  sway,  before  the  glacier- 
theory  came  into  life. 

It  was  agreed  that  no  ocean-waves  could  lift 
vast  blocks  of  granite  to  mountain  tops,  or  could 
mark  thousands  of  stones  as  we  see  them  marked. 

But  what  about  icebergs  !  What  if  once  the  con- 
tinents lay  deep  under  water,  and  icebergs  from 
the  frozen  north,  floating  southwards  on  the  sea, 
dropped  fragments  of  rock  and  stone  here  and  there 
on  the  submerged  land,  afterwards  to  be  upheaved 
and  to  become  dry  land  once  more  ?  Might  not 
the  same  icebergs,  grounding  here  and  there  in 
shallower  water,  scratch  and  groove  the  rocks  and 
stones  below? 

That  icebergs  do  in  the  present  day  bear  away 
great  pieces  of  rock  and  drop  them  upon  the  ocean 
floor  is  a  well-known  fact.  An  iceberg  is  only  a 
huge  fragment  broken  off  from  the  foot  of  an  enor- 


Ice -Work.  81 


mous  glacier;  and  the  rocks  and  stones  lying  upon 
the  glacier,  or  embedded  in  it  below,  will  in  like 
manner  lie  upon  or  cling  to  the  ice-masses,  which 
break  off  and  float  away  from  the  glacier.  As  the 
iceberg  reaches  a  warmer  atmosphere  and  melts 
away,  such  rocks  and  stones  must  sink  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea. 

But  though  this  may  account  for  some  particular 
blocks,  it  will  not  account  for  all.  Neither  will 
it  account  for  the  marked  stones.  An  iceberg 
grounding  might  make  with  its  jagged  bottom 
deep  scorings  and  furrows  here  and  there  in  the 
underlying  rocks,  but  it  could  not  polish  and  deli- 
cately trace  with  fine  lines  thousands  of  small 
stones. 

We  must,  therefore,  return  to  the  glacier  theory, 
as  that  which  at  present  seems  certainly  the  most 
likely  explanation. 

For  in  Scotland,  and  other  countries,  we  have 
the  polished  rocks,  the  scratched  and  furrowed 
stones,  the  piles  of  moraine-like  debris.  We  have 
also  the  huge  blocks  perched  at  great  heights, 
where  no  water  could  have  carried  them. 

But  these  glaciers  of  olden  days,  if  indeed  they 
existed,  must  have  been  of  enormous  extent.  They 
must  have  covered  a  great  part  of  Northern  Europe. 


82  The  World's  Foundations. 

In  North  America  they  must  have  reached  to  a 
height  of  three  or  four  thousand  feet  up  the  moun- 
tain-side, for  the  placing  of  the  massive  blocks 
there  seen.  Scotland  must  have  lain  buried  be- 
neath one  vast  glacier-system,  branching  in  all 
directions. 

Sometimes  in  Switzerland  certain  smoothed  and 
rounded  rocks  lie  near  together,  called  roches 
moutonees,  from  their  likeness  to  a  sheep's  back, 
and  known  to  have  been  thus  shaped  by  the  grind- 
ing power  of  ice.  Such  rocks  are  found  in  Amer- 
ica, where  no  glaciers  now  can  touch  them.  The 
rounded  summits  of  the  Scotch  mountains  would 
seem  to  point  also  to  the  same  cause. 

But  how  could  the  climate  of  so  many  countries 
have  thus  differed  in  the  past  from  our  climate  of 
modern  days? 

This  we  cannot  tell,  neither  is  it  needful  that 
we  should.  Many  facts  in  Nature  are  plain,  which 
yet  we  are  not  able  to  account  for. 

A  good  many  explanations  have,  it  is  true,  been 
suggested,  and  a  good  many  theories  started — some 
wildly  impossible,  some  perhaps  possible  but  utterly 
uncertain.  Writers  on  this  subject  have,  as  a  rule, 
been  very  much  more  successful  in  disproving  others' 
notions  than  in  proving  their  own. 


Ice -Work.  83 


For  in  truth  we  simply  do  not  and  cannot  yet 
know,  either  how  or  when  there  came  about  this 
great  period  of  extreme  cold — commonly  called 
the  Glacial  Age — whether  very  long  ago,  or 
whether  comparatively  near  to  historical  times, 
whether  only  once,  or  whether  several  times  re- 
peated. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   TWO    BOOKS. 

"Unto  Thee,  O  God,  do  we  give  thanks,  unto  Thee  do  we  give  thanks, 
for  that  Thy  Name  is  near  Thy  wondrous  works  declare."— PSA.  Ixxv.  I. 

THERE  may  be,  in  the  past  chapters,  certain  sug- 
gestive facts  startling  to  a  thoughtful  mind,  which 
has  not  met  with  them  before. 

What — a  whole  world  history  before  the  time 
of  Adam  ?  What — whole  races  of  animals  coming 
into  existence,  living,  and  dying  out  upon  this 
earth,  before  ever  the  foot  of  man  had  touched 
her  soil  ?  What — ages  upon  ages  earlier  still  of 
change  and  growth,  of  land  risings  and  sinkings, 
of  mountains  being  built,  of  rocks  being  formed, 
of  the  earth-crust  receiving,  touch  upon  touch, 
from  myriad  workers,  great  and  small,  her  shap- 
ing and  completion  ? 

Yes,  even  so.  We  may  not  shrink  from  look- 
ing the  matter  in  the  face,  for  if  we  rightly  read 


The  Two  Books.  85 


the  language  of  the  rocks  this  is  truth,  and  truth 
cannot  work  us  harm. 

Look  at  the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
feet  of  solid  rock-strata,  reaching  through  one  land 
after  another,  all  built  up — so  it  seems  to  us — mo- 
ment by  moment,  grain  by  grain,  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean.  Look  at  the  miles  of  chalk-forma- 
tion, composed  of  countless  millions  of  tiny  shells, 
sinking  each  one  to  that  same  ocean-floor  as  the 
little  occupant  ended  its  tiny  life.  Look  at  the 
multitude  of  coral  islands  in  southern  seas,  formed 
inch  by  inch  through  the  lives  of  ever-busy  coral 
polyps,  and  note  the  great  masses  of  limestone 
rock,  made  by  the  grinding  of  that  same  coral 
into  powder.  Look  at  the  acres  upon  acres  of 
coal  strata,  changed  remnants  of  uncountable  gen 
erations  of  forest-trees  and  undergrowth  ?  How 
long  did  all  these  take  to  be  built  up  and  formed 
and  changed,  to  be  raised  mountain  high,  or  to 
be  sunk  deep  underground  beneath  layer  after 
layer  of  concealing  strata  ? 

How  long?  Men  have  rashly  sought  to  answer 
that  question,  have  vainly  endeavored  to  count 
the  years  of  those  rolling  centuries  past.  But 
while  the  thought  of  all  this  is  oppressive,  is  even 
awful,  in  the  interminable  vista  of  back-reaching 


86  The  World's  Foundations. 

ages  which  it  opens  out  to  our  dim  vision,  no 
living  man  can  say  how  long  they  lasted.  For 
our  rate-measures  of  growth  and  change,  of  rock- 
building,  of  limestone  formation,  of  land  risings 
and  sinkings,  are  in  themselves  variable  and  ut- 
terly uncertain.  And  even  if  we  could  measure 
and  fix  their  rate  in  the  present,  this  would  not 
serve  us  for  the  past.  We  can  see  what  goes 
on  before  our  eyes  now.  We  cannot  see  or  allow 
for  the  effects  of  widely-differing  circumstances  in 
the  uninhabited  earth,  during  those  long-vanished 
centuries. 

But  the  solemn  thought  of  these  ages  upon  ages 
brings  another  question.  How  about  the  six  short 
Days  of  Creation  ?  How  about  the  repeated — "  God 
said  ....  and  it  was  so"? 

Stay;  the  Bible  tells  us  nothing  about  six  short 
days.  That  is  a  human  addition.  Man  puts  in  his 
explanatory,  "day  of  twenty-four  hours."  The  Bi- 
ble simply  says,  "Day,"  and  later  on  tells  us  "One 
Day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a 
thousand  years  as  one  day."  Man  writes  in  margins 
and  in  text-books  for  schools,  "Creation  of  the 
World,  B.C.  4004."  The  Bible,  with  grand  simplicity, 
says,  "IN  THE  BEGINNING  God  created  the  Heaven 
and  the  Earth " ;  but  gives  us  no  clue  as  to  when 


The  Two  Books.  87 


that  Beginning  was,  or  how  long  the  cycles  of  time 
might  be  which  lay  between  it  and  the  creation  of 
man. 

"God  said  ....  and  it  was  so."  This  does  not 
of  necessity  imply  instant  completion.  Had  God 
willed  He  could  have  so  created — instantaneously. 
But  from  all  that  we  can  see  this  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  His  mode  of  action.  "God  said" — the 
Divine  Will  acted  through  the  Divine  Word — "and 
it  was  so" — that  which  He  willed  came  to  pass — 
"and  He  saw  that  it  was  good." 

We  must  remember  always  that  we  have  more 
Books  than  one  given  us  by  the  same  Divine  Writer. 
The  Bible  is  the  Book  of  God,  but  it  is  not  the  only 
Book  of  God.  HE  has  written  for  us  also  the  great 
many-volumed  Book  of  Nature,  to  which  belongs 
the  torn  and  battered  volume  of  Geology.  The  two 
great  Books  resemble  one  another  in  certain  partic- 
ulars— in  being  more  or  less  fragmentary  in  style, 
and  in  containing  also  many  matters  past  our  power 
to  understand. 

Now  it  is  an  absolute  certainty  that  these  two 
Books,  both  written  by  the  same  great  Author,  can- 
not in  reality  contradict  one  another. 

In  the  study  of  Geology  as  of  other  volumes  in 
the  Book  of  Nature,  we  can  take  no  safe  stand  but 


88  The  World's  Foundations. 

this.  Both  are  from  God.  Both  are  through  and 
through  simple  truth. 

Mistakes  may  indeed  be  made.  Startling  theories 
and  hasty  conclusions  may  be  spread  abroad.  Our 
explanations  of  the  one  Book  may  very  easily  con- 
flict with  our  readings  of  the  other  Book,  explana- 
tion or  reading  or  both  being  often  utterly  mistaken. 

But  our  safety  is  in  a  willingness  to  wait,  and  to 
reserve  judgment,  confident  throughout  in  one  broad 
certainty — that  all  Truth  centres  in  God,  and  that 
what  He  has  written  in  His  Book  of  Revelation  and 
in  His  Book  of  Nature  cannot  but  be  in  perfect  har- 
mony, the  one  with  the  other. 

There  may  be  grandeur  and  majesty  in  the 
thought  that  when  God  created,  as  He  sat  en- 
throned, He  spoke  the  audible  word  —  "Let  it 
be " — and,  in  answer,  worlds,  light,  seas,  land, 
plants,  trees,  animals,  flashed  instantly  into  per- 
fect being. 

But  surely  the  thought  is  yet  more  grand,  more 
majestic,  and  withal  more  tenderly  beautiful,  that  in 
the  calm  unfolding  of  His  power  He  slowly  moulded 
and  fashioned  this  earth  of  ours — fire  and  water,  sea 
and  river,  tiny  polyps  and  rhizopods,  one  and  all 
carrying  out  His  will. 


The  Two  Books.  89 


Surely  the  thought  contains  for  us  more  of  sweet- 
ness, that  through  those  long  preceding  ages  our 
Father  in  heaven  was  gradually  preparing  this  earth 
to  be  our  home,  was  shaping  the  continents,  was 
restraining  the  oceans,  was  causing  the  mountains 
to  be  built  and  upheaved,  was  laying  stores  of  fuel 
deep  underground  to  cheer  us  in  wintry  days, 
was  preparing  the  buried  glittering  gem  to  de- 
light our  eyes,  was  making  ready  the  thousand 
materials  which  bring  comfort  and  occupation  into 
our  lives. 

For  He  thought  beforehand  on  our  needs,  through 
all  those  countless  ages.  There  is  much  in  the  past, 
as  in  the  present,  that  we  cannot  fathom,  and  many 
a  mystery  will  meet  us  which  we  have  no  power  to 
solve.  But  one  underlying  fact  is  clear.  The  half- 
read  story  of  olden  days,  which  I  have  now  to  tell, 
as  gathered  from  the  broken  records  of  the  earth- 
crust,  is  in  great  measure  the  story  of  a  Father's 
loving  foresight,  a  Father's  careful  preparation  for 
His  children's  needs. 


PART   II. 
A  STORY  OF  OLDEN  DA  YS.    ' 


CHAPTER  X. 

TWO    KINGDOMS. 
"All  Thy  works  shall  praise  Thee,  O  Lord."— PSA.  cxlv.  10. 

HAVING  spent  some  little  time  in  learning  the  A 
B  C  of  the  Rock-alphabet,  we  have  now  to  try  to 
read  the  story  of  long  past  days,  as  written  in  the 
rocks — or  rather,  to  glance  at  some  few  pages  in 
the  book. 

Before  doing  so,  however,  certain  words  are 
needful  as  to  different  kinds  of  animals  and  plants. 

Animals  and  plants  are  commonly  said  to  belong 
to  separate  kingdoms.  We  talk  of  the  Animal 
Kingdom,  and  of  the  Vegetable  Kingdom.  All  kinds 
of  trees,  shrubs,  plants,  mosses,  sea-weeds,  are  thus 
called  Vegetables. 

Both  animals  and  vegetables,  in  their  separate 
kingdoms,  are  also  divided  into  classes,  some  rank- 
ing higher  and  some  ranking  lower. 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  a  horse  or  a  dog 


94  The  World's  Foundations, 

must  stand  higher  in  the  Animal  Kingdom  than  a 
crab  or  an  oyster.  It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that 
an  oak  or  an  apple-tree  must  stand  higher  in  the 
Vegetable  Kingdom  than  a  moss  or  a  sea-weed. 

But  between  these  widely-parted  kinds  there  lie 
an  immense  number,  descending  step  by  step  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom.  In  Nature  we  do  not  find 
classes  divided  by  empty  chasms.  Each  class  or 
kind  of  animals  or  vegetables,  instead  of  being 
sharply  cut  off  from  the  next  by  a  wall  or  moat, 
passes  into  it  by  delicate  shades,  much  as  the  tints 
of  a  rainbow  melt  softly  into  one  another. 

Here  we  find  an  animal  which  belongs  clearly  to 
one  class,  and  there  we  find  an  animal  which  be- 
longs clearly  to  the  next  class.  But  between  the 
two  we  come  upon  a  third  animal  which  may  be 
said  to  belong  almost  equally  to  either  class. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  two  great  kingdoms,  Ani- 
mal and  Vegetable.  We  may  decide  easily  enough 
that  a  dog  is  an  animal  and  that  a  rose-tree  is  a 
vegetable.  Yet  low  down  in  both  classes,  on  that 
hazy  border-land  which  joins — not  separates — the 
two,  are  found  certain  creatures  or  things  which 
naturalists  were  long  puzzled  to  give  over  to  either 
kingdom.  Some  were  taken  for  vegetables,  and 
were  afterwards  found  to  be  animals.  Others  were 


Two  Kingdoms.  95 


taken  for  animals,  and  were  afterwards  decided  to 
be  vegetables.  Thus  kingdom  shades  softly  off  into 
kingdom,  kind  melts  into  kind,  class  glides  into 
class.  Hard  and  sharp  dividing-lines  seem  to  be 
human,  not  Divine,  in  their  nature. 

The  same  plan  is  to  some  extent  seen  in  the 
great  Ages  of  Geology.  We  have  now  to  travel  in 
fancy  through  those  long  past  Ages — shall  I  call 
them  DAYS  ? — conjuring  up  picture  after  picture. 
At  one  time  we  shall  find  ourselves  in  an  Age  of 
Fishes;  at  another  in  an  Age  of  Reptiles;  at  another 
in  an  Age  of  Quadrupeds.  Yet  each  age  is  often- 
times not  divided  from  those  before  and  after  by 
marked  barriers,  any  more  than  one  day  is  so  di- 
vided from  another  day. 

There  are  indeed  great  gaps  in  the  rock-volume, 
and  many  of  these  Ages  seem  to  have  come  in  and 
gone  out  with  tumults  and  disturbances.  But  it  is 
often  impossible  to  say  how  far  the  break  is  owing 
to  some  mighty  catastrophe,  and  how  far  it  is 
merely  caused  by  many  rock-layers  having  been 
washed  away. 

As  a  general  rule,  each  Age,  so  far  as  regards  its 
animals  and  plants  may  be  said  to  have  come  in  and 
gone  out  gradually.  A  few  fishes,  for  example,  are 
discovered  in  one  set  of  rocks;  then  in  the  next  set 


96  The  World's  Foundations. 

they  abound  beyond  all  other  kinds  of  living  crea- 
tures; again  in  the  age  following  the  supply  of  fishes 
is  found  to  lessen,  and  some  other  creature  becomes 
plentiful  in  their  stead.  Thus  trees,  reptiles,  ani- 
malcules, four-footed  beasts,  have  each  their  dawn, 
their  day,  their  evening  decline. 

It  is  somewhat  as  if  we  were  looking  across  a  suc- 
cession of  lofty  mountain  heights,  not  parted  by 
abrupt  precipices  one  from  another,  but  in  most 
cases  by  gentle  slopes. 

Both  animals  and  plants  differ  from'  rocks  and 
stones  in  having  life,  and  also  in  having  what  are 
called  organs.  An  "organ"  is  a  certain  part  of  a 
living  body,  fitted  to  perform  certain  actions.  The 
eye  is  the  "organ"  of  sight,  and  the  ear  is  the  "or- 
gan" of  hearing.  Thus,  animals  and  plants  are  said 
to  be  "organized,"  while  rocks  are  not. 

The  smaller  the  number  of  these  separate  parts  in 
an  .animal,  the  lower  the  rank  of  that  animal.  When 
an  animal  has  many  "organs"  it  belongs  to  one  of 
the  upper  classes  in  the  kingdom. 

The  Animal  Kingdom  contains  every  kind  of  ani- 
mal which  lives,  or  has  ever  lived  upon  the  earth. 
It  is  divided  into  two  great  lesser  kingdoms — one 
containing  all  animals  which  have  a  backbone,  and 


Two  Kingdoms.  97 


the  other  containing  all  animals  which  have  not  a 
backbone.  Each  of  these  two  lesser  kingdoms  is 
divided  again  into  four  classes.* 

The  very  lowest  of  all  animals  are  exceedingly 
small  and  simple  in  make.  Often  they  cannot  be 
seen  at  all,  without  the  help  of  a  microscope;  and 
they  have  no  separate  parts  except  a  mouth  and  a 
stomach.  Some  have  not  even  these,  and  are  mere 
tiny  bags,  able  to  take  in  food  at  any  part  of  their 
little  round  bodies.  A  small  dent,  or  hollow  ap- 
pears, and  the  food  sinks  in,  after  which  the  moutlj 
vanishes.  The  tiny  rhizopods,  from  whose  shells 
our  chalk-cliffs  are  made,  belong  to  this  class. 

The  creatures  in  the  next  class  higher  are  not 
quite  so  simple  in  make.  They  have  different  parts 
branching  out  from  a  centre,  something  like  the 
petals  of  a  flower,  or  the  spokes  of  a  wheel.  Star- 
fishes and  jelly-fishes  are  of  the  number. 

Thirdly  come  such  animals  as  the  oyster  and  the 
snail,  and  the  octopus — soft-bodied  in  make,  with 
heads  and  eyes,  which  is  a  marked  advance  on  the 
two  lower  classes. 

Next  we  reach  a  very  large  number  of  animals, 
remarkable  for  their  joints — not  joints  in  bones,  for 

*  Sometimes  the  four  lower  classes  are  spoken  of  as  four  sub-king- 
doms. 


The   World's  Foundations. 


they  have  no  bones,  but  joints  in  a  Irard  outside 
skin.  To  this  class  belong  crabs  and  lobsters, 
shrimps  and  worms,  spiders  and  all  insects. 

So  much  for  boneless  creatures.  Another  step 
lands  us  in  the  higher  sub-kingdom, — that  of  ani- 
mals with  backbones.  But  here  again  there  are 
divisions.  Cold-blooded  animals  rank  low,  and 
warm-blooded  animals  rank  high.  Those  that 
breathe  in  water  rank  low,  and  those  that  breathe 
in  air  rank  high. 

Beginning  with  the  lowest,  the  kinds  of  animals 
in  the  second  sub-kingdom  stand  thus: 

I.  FISHES. 
II.  REPTILES. 

III.  BIRDS. 

IV.  MAMMALS. 

There  is  a  kind  of  small  half-class  between  the 
Fishes  and  Reptiles  to  which  the  frog  and  a  few 
other  animals  belong.  Part  of  his  life  a  frog  breathes 
like  a  fish,  and  part  of  his  life  he  breathes  like  a 
reptile. 

The  great  distinguishing  mark  of  the  Mammals 
is  that  they  suckle  their  young.  All  four-footed 
beasts,  large  and  small,  from  the  elephant  down  to 
the  mouse,  are  mammals;  so  also  are  the  whale  and 


Two  Kingdoms.  99 


the  seal.  Man  himself  stands  at  the  top  of  this 
highest  class  of  all,  and  belongs  to  it — for  Man  is 
an  animal. 

But  although  in  his  bodily  make  man  is  an  animal, 
yet  a  great  gap  lies  between  him  and  the  highest  of 
the  brutes;  since  man  alone  of  all  the  animal-crea- 
tion was  made  in  the  likeness  of  the  ever-living 
God. 

The  Vegetable  Kingdom  has  no  sub-kingdoms, 
but  it  has  two  great  divisions,  which  are  again 
parted  into  classes.  The  lowest  of  these  divisions 
contains  all  non-flowering  plants,  such  as  sea-weeds, 
mosses,  and  ferns.  The  upper  division  contains  all 
flowering  plants  and  trees. 

These  few  particulars,  with  the  tables  following, 
will  serve,  through  the  following  chapters,  as  a 
slight  guide  to  the  order  in  which  Life  seems  to 
have  entered  upon  the  earth. 

Animals  and  Vegetables  were  arranged  thus  in 
classes,  ranging  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  by 
zoologists  and  botanists,  quite  independently  of  the 
discoveries  made  by  geologists  in  the  rocks.  It  is 
very  remarkable  that  the  order  of  man's  arrangement 
should  be  found  to  agree,  so  far  as  it  does,  with  the 
seeming  order  of  God's  creation. 


roo  The   World's  Foundations. 

ANIMAL   KINGDOM. 

Sub-Kingdom  I.     INVERTEBRATES,  or  Animals 
without  a  backbone,  or  inside  skeleton. 

CLASS 

I.  Protozoans,  or  First- Animals:  very  small  and 
simple  in  make;  such  as  tiny  microscopic 
creatures,  also  sponges,  etc. 

II.  Radiates:  having  parts  branching  out  from  a 
centre,  with  mouths  and  stomachs,  and  some- 
times arms  or  rays;  such  as  star-fishes,  jelly- 
fishes,  sea-urchins,  etc. 

III.  Mollusks:  soft  bodied  creatures,  with  mouths 
and  stomachs,  and  often  distinct  heads  and 
eyes;  such  as  the  oyster,  the  snail,  the 
octopus,  etc. 

TV.  Articulates:  animals  having  jointed  bodies,  not 
joints  in  bones,  but  joints  in  an  outside  hard- 
ened skin,  with  more  organs  then  any  lower 
kinds;  such  as  crabs  and  lobsters,  shrimps 
and  crayfishes,  wasps,  spiders,  and  all  insects. 

Sub-Kingdom  II.     VERTEBRATES,  or  Animals  with 

a  backbone  and  inside  skeleton. 
CLASS 

I.  Fishes:  Cold-blooded,  and  breathe  in  water  by 
means  of  gills. 


Two  Kingdoms.  101 


•^          II.  Reptiles:    Cold-blooded,     but    air-breathing. 
-^  True    Reptiles    are    always     air  -  breathing. 

C^  Amphibians  breathe  sometimes  in  air,  some- 

times in  water;  therefore  they  come  mid-way 
between  Fishes  and  True  Reptiles. 

\^\ 

'     III.  Birds:  Warm-blooded  and  air-breathing. 

.  IV.  Mammals:  Warm-blooded  and  air-breathing; 
also  suckle  their  young.  This  is  the  mark 
of  highest  rank  among  animals.  All  four- 
footed  beasts,  also  the  whale  and  seal,  also 
Man,  belong  to  this  class. 


VEGETABLE    KINGDOM. 

CO 

I.  CRYPTOGAMS,  or  NON-FLOWERING  PLANTS. 
Characteristics:  no  flower,  and  no  real  fruit.     The 
seed  is  a  tiny  spore,  not  a  true  seed. 

%  First  Class  (lowest). — To  this  belong  sea-weeds, 
mushrooms,  lichens,  and  other  plants — grow- 
ing in  fronds,  without  stems. 

Second  Class  (higher). — To  this  belong  mosses  and 
liverworts,  and  other  plants — having  short 
thick  stems. 

Third  Class  (highest).— To  this  belong  ferns,  and 
lycopods,  and  other  plants — growing  upwards, 
with  longer  stems. 


IO2  The  World's  Foundations. 

II.  PHENOGAMS,  or  FLOWERING  PLANTS. 
Characteristics:  having  real  flowers  and  true  seeds. 

First  Class  (lowest). — To  this  belong  such  trees  as 
the  pine,  the  hemlock,  the  spruce.  They  in- 
crease in  size  by  growing  outward  in  rings  or 
layers  under  the  bark;  also  they  have  a  sim- 
ple flower,  and  an  uncovered  seed. 

Second  Class  (higher). — To  this  belong  the  elm,  the 
oak,  the  rose,  the  apple,  and  the  greater 
number  of  trees  and  plants.  They  grow  like 
those  of  the  First  Class,  but  have  a  more 
perfect  flower,  and  a  covered  seed. 

Third  Class. — To  this  belong  the  palm,  the  Indian 
corn,  the  lily,  and  all  bulbs  and  grasses. 
They  do  not  increase  their  growth  by  added 
rings.  This  class  is  not  usually  ranked  as 
higher  than  the  Second. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

EARLIEST     AGES. 

"  When  there  were  no  depths  ....  when  there  were  no  fountains 
abounding  with  water.  Before  the  mountains  were  settled  ....  while 
as  yet  He  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the  fields,  nor  the  highest  part  of 
the  dust  of  the  world."— PROV.  viii.  24-26. 

GEOLOGY  can  tell  us  nothing  about  the  first  crea- 
tion of  the  world.  Properly  speaking,  geology  has 
only  to  do  with  the  building  up  of  the  earth's  crust, 
after  the  earth  was  already  made.  Still,  as  the 
geologist  gropes  his  way  through  the  dim  light  of 
past  ages,  it  is  not  surprising  that  sometimes  we 
find  him  wandering  on,  and  trying  to  discover  more 
about  the  creation  of  this  round  globe. 

"IN  THE  BEGINNING   GOD   MADE  THE  .  .  . 
EARTH." 

So  much  is  clear.  But  how  was  it  made  ?  The 
statement  is  brief,  offering  no  particulars.  Geology 
joins  hands  with  Astronomy  in  the  attempt  to  ex- 


IO4  The  World's  Foundations. 

plain  further.     We  are  brought  here  to  conjecture 
only.     We  do  not  know. 

Astronomers  find  in  the  heavens  many  solid  and 
cold  bodies  like  our  earth;  also  others  in  a  burning 
state  surrounded  by  fiery  atmospheres  like  our  sun; 
also  yet  others  which  seem  to  be  mere  masses  of 
flaming  gas. 

What  if  these  are  three  stages  in  the  preparation 
of  a  world:  first,  fiery  gas;  then,  the  cooling  into 
liquid  form,  or  into  a  solid  centre  with  a  burn- 
ing atmosphere  around;  lastly,  the  change  into  a 
solid  and  cold  globe,  more  or  less  ready  to  be 
inhabited  ? 

In  far-back  ages  God  may  have  made  first — if 
indeed  that  were  the  first  step — a  ball  of  fiery  gas, 
and  sent  it  rolling  through  the  heavens. 

As  ages  passed,  the  particles  of  gas,  slowly  cool- 
ing, would  draw  closer  together,  and  by-and-by 
the  rolling  ball  would  be  a  liquid  globe,  most  likely 
surrounded  still  for  a  while  by  a  blazing  atmos- 
phere of  burning  gases,  containing  much  of  the 
materials  which  now  form  our  rocks.  The  sun  and 
stars  have  such  atmospheres  around  them  still. 

As  the  cooling  went  on,  a  shell  of  hardening 
material  would  form  slowly  over  the  liquid  ball,  and 


Earliest  Ages.  105 


probably  at  the  same  time  the  centre  might  be 
growing  solid  from  the  weight  upon  it.  Between 
the  solid  inside  and  the  solid  outer  crust  would  lie 
a  sea  of  red-hot  liquid,  gradually  lessening.  The 
underground  lakes  of  molten  rock,  supposed  now  to 
feed  our  volcanoes,  may  be  the  remains  of  such  a 
vast  underground  sea. 

At  first  doubtless  the  crust  would  often  upheave 
and  break,  till  it  grew  strong  enough  to  chain  down 
the  fiery  forces  below.  A  good  illustration  of  this 
might  perhaps  be  found  in  the  crust  seen  to  form 
over  the  fiery  lakes  of  liquid  lava,  in  the  volcanoes 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

Then  in  time,  as  the  crust — this  outer  crust  of 
first-formed  Rocks — grew  stiff  and  unyielding,  the 
cooling  of  the  layers  within  would  cause  the  inside 
to  become  too  small  for  its  covering,  for  cooling 
bodies  always  lessen  in  size.  The  crust  would, 
therefore,  rise  and  sink  in  vast  ridges  and  hol- 
lows, somewhat  like  the  wrinkling  skin  of  a  dry- 
ing orange. 

Meanwhile,  from  the  cooling  atmosphere  over- 
head— no  longer  a  collection  of  flaming  gases,  but 
rather  a  thick  mass  of  steam  or  vapor — the  entire 
earth  would  be  gradually  overspread  by  a  shore- 
less ocean  of  boiling  waters.  Some  of  the  planets 


ioo  The  World's  Foundations. 

seem  to  have  such  dense  envelopes  of  vapor  around 
them  still. 

Slowly  this  ocean  would  gather  into  the  deep- 
ening crust-hollows;  and  low-lying  lands  would 
be  upheaved  beyond  reach  of  the  waves,  perhaps 
often  to  sink  and  rise  and  sink  again  through 
centuries  following.  As  the  waters  grew  cool 
enough,  the  first  and  lowest  kinds  of  plants  and 
animals  might  have  begun  to  appear,  coming  into 
life  mysteriously  from  the  Creator's  Hand.  And 
the  lessening  cloud-masses  overhead  would  admit 
the  first  gleams  of  sunlight  and  moonlight  to  the 
dark  waters  of  the  great  deep.  And  already  the 
ocean  would  have  begun  its  ceaseless  work,  by 
wearing  away  the  borders  of  those  low-lying 
lands,  to  build  up  beneath  its  rolling  waves  the 
earliest  layers  of  sediment  rocks.  How  rapidly 
such  work  might  have  taken  place  under  such 
circumstances  we  cannot  now  tell. 

Thus,  it  may  be,  the  earliest  Ages  or  Days  of 
creation  and  preparation  passed  away. 

Some  hold  the  above,  or  something  like  it,  to 
be  a  probable  explanation  of  the  course  of  events. 
Others  are  inclined  rather  to  believe  that  from 
earliest  times  our  earth  was  a  solid  and  cool 
body,  and  that  the  oldest  fire-made  rocks  are 


Earliest  Ages.  107 


not  of  greater  age  than  the  oldest  water-made 
rocks.  They  put  quite  aside  the  question  of  how 
the  earth  was  created,  saying  that  geology  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it,  and  that  geolo- 
gists had  better  keep  to  their  particular  province 
— the  crust  of  the  earth. 

We  have,  indeed,  no  means  of  coming  to  any 
decided  opinion.  We  can  but  hear  opposite  ideas, 
and  wait  for  fuller  knowledge. 

The  earliest-formed  rocks  yet  known  are  chiefly, 
though  not  entirely,  fire-made  rocks. 

Although  not  stratified  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term,  they  are  often  arranged  in  layers,  one  kind 
lying  over  the  next,  such  as  granite,  slate,  lime- 
stone, and  other  kinds,  taking  turns,  one  above 
another.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  parti- 
cular rocks  classed  by  some  writers  as  first-formed, 
were  really  part  of  the  first-formed  crust,  even 
supposing  that  the  crust  did  actually  cool  as  de- 
scribed above.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  seem  to  have 
been  once  water-built  rocks,  afterwards  changed  by 
fire  into  their  present  state. 

When  rocks  of  such  ancient  date  are  seen  at  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  it  is  because  they  have  been 
forced  up,  breaking  through  all  overlying  layers;  or 


io8  The  World's  Foundations. 

else  because  they  have  not  been  under  the  ocean 
since  earliest  ages,  so  that  no  water-built  rocks 
have  been  formed  over  them;  or  else  because,  if 
such  rocks  ever  were  formed,  the  said  overlying 
layers  have  since  been  washed  clean  away. 

Few  remains  of  plants  or  animals  are  found  in 
these  very  ancient  rocks.  There  are  some  dim 
signs  of  plants  in  the  oldest  of  all;  and,  indeed,  this 
is  only  what  one  would  expect,  apart  from  fossils, 
and  apart  from  the  Bible  record.  Vegetables  being 
needful  as  food  for  animals,  it  seems  a  matter  of 
almost  certainty  that  vegetables  must  have  come 
into  existence  first.  There  are  dim  signs  of  ani- 
mals also  in  certain  limestones  of  those  times.  But 
plants  and  animals  seem  to  have  been  of  the  very 
lowest  and  simplest  forms. 

Can  you  picture  to  yourself  our  beautiful  earth  in 
those  early  days?  A  wide  waste  of  ocean,  over 
which  no  ship  was  ever  seen  to  sail;  light  breaking 
dimly  through  the  murky  cloud-wrapped  atmos- 
phere; a  few  low-lying  lands  of  bare  rocks,  with 
perhaps  some  lichens  here  and  there,  or  some  sea- 
weeds washed  up  by  the  waves;  but  no  plants,  no 
trees,  no  towns  or  villages,  no  sound  of  man  or 
beast  or  bird;  no  mountains  and  no  rivers;  no  life  in 
the  great  silent  reaches  of  ocean,  save  tiny  animal- 


Earliest  Ages.  109 


cules,  passing  through  their  quiet  existence.  How 
different  from  the  busy  teeming  earth  of  these 
days  ! 

Only  then,  as  earlier,  we  may  be  sure  that  "the 
Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  the  face  of  the  waters." 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    AGE    OF    LOWER    ANIMALS. 

"The  sea  is  His,  and  He  made  it;  and  His  Hands  formed  the  dry 
land." — PSA.  xcv.  5. 

WE  now  come  to  the  great  early  division  of  past 
time,  the  rocks  of  which  are  sometimes  called  Pri- 
mary or  First  Rocks,  because  they  are  the  first 
about  which  we  can  know  anything  definite.  They 
are  also  known  as  "  Ancient  Animal "  Rocks,* 
because  none  of  the  animals  which  lived  then  were 
quite  the  same  as  any  which  live  now. 

Looking  back  to  that  dim  bygone  Period,  we 
seem  to  see  three  mountains-tops  rise  high,  one 
after  another,  as  lofty  Alpine  peaks  are  uplifted 
above  all  lower  summits,  with  valleys  lying  between. 
These  three  heights,  all  belonging  to  the  great 
Ancient  Animal  Period,  are: 

•"Paleozoic"  means  literally  "ancient  animals,"  or  "ancient  life." 


The  Age  of  Lower  Animals.  in 

THE  AGE  OF  BONELESS  LOWER  ANIMALS; 

THE  AGE  OF  FISHES; 

THE  AGE  OF  FORESTS,  OR  THE  AGE  OF  COAL. 

And  first  we  have  to  think  about  the  Age  of 
Lower  Animals,  sometimes  called  the  Age  of 
Limestone-making. 

The  rocks  belonging  to  this  Age  extend  through 
a  great  part  of  the  Continents,  but  they  are  gen- 
erally buried  deep  beneath  other  rocks,  built  over 
them  in  later  times.  It  is  only  here  and  there  that 
they  are  to  be  found,  reaching  up  to  the  surface  of 
the  ground. 

There  are  a  good  many  different  kinds  of  rocks, 
but  the  most  abundant  of  all  is  limestone.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  limestone  is  often  formed  out 
of  the  remains  of  sea-shells,  small  or  large,  ground 
up  and  pressed  together.  This  work  has  to  take 
place  under  water,  and  yet  not  at  any  great  depth; 
for  in  deep  water  the  waves  have  no  power  to  grind 
together  the  shells  lying  at  the  bottom.  Even  in 
the  heaviest  storms,  the  bottom  of  the  deep  sea  is 
always  quite  calm. 

So  two  facts  seem  pretty  clear;  first,  that  a  great 
part  of  our  present  continents  must  have  been  at 
that  time  under  water;  and  secondly,  that  where 


112  T/ie   World's  Foundations. 

limestone-making  took  place,  which  was  over  a 
very  wide  extent  of  earth,  the  water  could  not  have 
been  deep. 

Another  proof  that  the  water  was  not  deep  is 
that  remains  of  corals  are  found  here  and  there 
in  the  limestone.  Reef-coral-making  can  never  go 
on,  either  above  water  or  in  very  deep  water.  The 
land — our  present  land,  then  under  water — was 
probably  slowly  sinking  through  many  centuries, 
before  it  rose  to  become  dry  land,  while  the  coral- 
polyps  were  at  work  building  up,  and  the  waves 
also  were  at  work  grinding  into  fine  powder  much 
of  the  coral,  which  gradually  became  hard  lime- 
stone. This  is  now  seen  to  take  place  continually 
in  the  islands  of  the  South  Seas. 

So  in  the  Lower- Animal  Age,  it  seems  that  our 
present  continents  lay  for  the  most  part  under  the 
sea,  though  at  no  great  depth.  Probably  they  had 
already  taken  something  of  their  present  shape, 
and  many  mountain-tops — not  yet  rising  high — 
may  have  shown  as  little  islands  above  the 
water. 

Dry  land  seems  to  have  occupied  much  less 
apace  than  at  present;  but  of  this  we  cannot  be 
,ure.  We  do  not  at  all  know  whether  the  oceans 
vere  then  as  they  are  now,  or  whether  what  was 


The  Age  of  Lower  A  nimals.  1 1 3 

then   dry   land   has   since    gone    down    under    the 
deep  sea  never  to  rise  again. 

The  Age  of  Boneless  Animals  must — so  tar  as 
we  are  able  to  judge — have  lasted  long,  though 
how  long  no  man  can  tell.  Neither  is  it  possible 
to  say  when  the  Age  began  or  when  it  ceased, 
counting  by  years  and  centuries.  The  sharp  divi- 
sion between  period  and  period  is  sometimes  plainly 
written  in  the  rocks,  but  no  dates  are  inscribed 
there. 

Taken  generally  it  seems  to  have  been  a  quiet 
time — a  time  of  few  disturbances.  Long  ages  ap- 
pear to  have  passed  away,  while  the  building  up 
of  the  limestone-rocks  went  on,  layer  after  layer 
being  silently  laid  beneath  the  waves,  in  shallow 
seas,  with  little  or  no  river-mud  floating  in  them. 
Then  some  change  would  take  place — perhaps  a 
change  in  the  level  of  land  or  sea-bottom — and 
sand  and  earth  would  be  borne  seaward  once 
more,  and  here  or  there  sandstone  or  other  rocks 
would  be  built  up  for  a  while,  in  the  place  of 
limestone,  by-and-by  ceasing  and  giving  place 
again  to  the  latter. 

So  through  century  after  century,  slowly  or 
quickly,  by  the  action  of  water  and  living  crea- 


H4  The  World's  Foundations. 

tures  and  of  rising  and  sinking  land,  the  countries 
which  now  we  inhabit  were  being  prepared  under 
the  sea  for  our  use. 

Yet  the  preparation  was  not  always  so  quiet 
and  still.  Between  the  Lower  and  Upper  Rocks 
of  the  Age,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  at  other  dates 
also,  marks  are  seen  of  great  and  wide-spread  dis- 
turbance. Some  think  it  was  slow  disturbance, 
lasting  long,  but  this  is  by  no  means  certain.  One 
way  or  another,  the  rocklayers,  placed  so  evenly 
under  the  waves,  were  upheaved  and  tilted  and  bent. 

The  climate  of  the  earth  in  those  days  must 
have  differed  not  a  little  from  the  climate  of  the 
earth  in  these  days.  It  does  not  appear  that  there 
were  any  strong  contrasts  of  cold  and  heat.  From 
the  most  northern  parts  of  Europe  and  America 
down  to  the  most  southern  parts  of  Europe  and 
the  United  States,  the  same  animals  flourished. 
Coral-polyps  carried  on  their  work  not  only  over 
submerged  England,  but  far  to  the  north,  near  the 
Arctic  Circle;  and  coral-polyps  can  only  exist  in 
warm  seas. 

In  the  very  earliest  of  these  rocks  there  are  to 
be  seen  little  ripple-marks  and  mud-cracks  and 
wormborings,  such  as  we  may  see  now  upon  the 


The  Age  of  Lower  Animals.  115 

shore,  only  hardened  with  the  hardening  of  the 
soft  sand  or  clay  into  rock. 

When  a  piece  of  rock  has  such  marks,  you  may 
be  sure  that  they  were  made  upon  the  beach  be- 
tween high  and  low  water-line.  Is  it  not  wonder- 
ful to  think  that,  all  those  long  ages  ago,  little 
wavelets  played  upon  the  sand,  and  tiny  worms 
crept  to  and  fro,  just  as  we  find  now  ?  Only  then 
there  never  came  the  foot  of  man,  or  the  feet  of 
little  children  dancing  over  the  sand,  to  visit  the 
lonely  shores. 

But  the  world  was  not  so  empty  at  that  time 
as  in  the  earlier  Ages  of  the  last  chapter.  Life 
had  already  begun  to  abound,  though  it  was  as 
yet  only  lower  life  in  kind. 

With  regard  to  the  land-plants,  we  can  say  so 
little  as  to  be  almost  nothing.  Many  land-plants 
may  have  grown  on  countries  or  islands  which  may 
have  sunk  afterwards  down  below  the  sea.  But 
if  any  such  there  were,  we  have  no  trace  of  them. 
With  regard  to  ocean-plants,  we  only  know  that 
there  were  sea- weeds;  and  sea-weeds  belong  to 
the  very  lowest  order  of  the  flowerless  and  seedless 
division  of  plants. 

Limestone  keeps  animal  remains  well,  but  it  is 
rarely  known  to  keep  any  vegetable  remains.  This 


Ii6  The  World's  Foundations. 

may  explain  in  part  the  scarcity  of  stony  vegetable 
remains  in  these  rocks,  limestone  having  been  the 
most  abundant. 

But  if  vegetable-fossils  are  rare,  animal-fossils 
are  not.  The  seas  swarmed  with  living  creatures; 
only  there  were  none  of  the  higher  ranks.  No 
beasts,  no  birds,  no  reptiles,  and,  until  the  very 
close  of  the  Age,  no  fishes  either,  seem  to  have 
existed.  Back-boned  animals  were  as  yet  un- 
created. The  boneless  lower  animals  had  the  earth 
to  themselves  in  those  days  and  their  fossils  are 
found  in  great  numbers. 

The  ocean  must  indeed  have  teemed  with  life. 
Yet  of  all  the  living  creatures  which  ranged  the 
seas,  not  one  was  precisely  the  same  as  any  one 
living  creature  of  the  present  time.  Some  bore  a 
certain  degree  of  resemblance  to  modern  kinds; 
others  were  utterly  unlike  any  animal  now  seen. 
Nay,  the  very  creatures  of  the  first  half  of  the 
Age  differed  from  the  creatures  of  the  last  half, 
and  those  again  from  the  creatures  of  the  Age 
following. 

How  the  change  came  about  we  cannot  tell. 
We  can  only  see  that  there  was  a  break,  and 
that  the  animals  which  lived  after  the  break  were 
not  the  same  as  the  animals  which  lived  before 


The  Age  of  Lower  Animals.  117 

the  break.  It  seems  to  be  the  close  of  one 
chapter  in  the  record  and  the  beginning  of  an- 
other chapter.  But  whether  this  really  is  the  case, 
or  whether  the  seeming  break  is  only  caused  by 
some  leaves  in  the  book  having  been  torn  out  and 
lost,  is  a  difficult  question.  Some  suppose  the  one 
and  some  suppose  the  other,  and  no  one  really 
knows. 

All  we  know  is,  that  the  older  kinds  of  sea- 
creatures  did  die  out,  and  that  the  newer  kinds 
— very  much  like  the  old,  yet  with  marked  differ- 
ences— did  come  in.  The  Hand  of  God  was  working 
through  those  great  Creation-Days,  but  precisely 
how  He  worked  we  are  not  able  to  say. 

The  animals  living  in  this  Age  belonged  to  all 
the  four  lower  classes  in  the  Animal  Kingdom.  No 
land-animals'  remains  have  been  found.  They  were 
all  sea-creatures.  The  ocean  seems  to  have  been 
thickly  populated;  and  limestone-making  must  have 
advanced  grandly  in  those  busy  waters,  where  no 
larger  creatures  lived,  as  now,  to  prey  upon  the 
helpless  multitudes. 

The  fossil  remains  of  one  curious  three-lobed 
animal  have  been  found  in  great  abundance.  The 
name  "Trilobite"  has  been  given  to  it,  from  the 


Ii8  The  World's  Foundations. 

shape;  but  no  man  has  ever  seen  the  living  crea- 
ture, for  nothing  like  it  is  in  the  earth  now. 
Trilobites  flourished  all  through  the  Age  which 
we  are  now  thinking  about,  little  ones  and  big 
ones,  sometimes  as  much  as  a  foot  in  length, 
with  large  well-marked  eyes.  These  eyes,  visible 
in  the  stony  remains  to  the  present  day,  tell  a 
tale  of  interest.  Even  in  very  early  ages  there  is 
supposed  to  have  been  considerable  light,  or  the 
trilobite  might  have  found  his  eyes  useless  to 
him.  So  we  may  learn  much  from  a  simple 
matter. 

But  the  trilobite  is  one  of  those  "ancient  ani- 
mals" which  have  died  completely  out  of  existence. 
As  has  been  said  of  the  ammonite: 

•The  Almighty's  breath  spake  out  in  death, 
And  the  trilobite  lived  no  more." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  Age  a  few  remains  of 
land-plants — flowerless  ones — are  found  for  the  first 
time. 

Another  and  still  greater  event  is  the  sudden 
appearance  of  Fishes.  Up  to  this  date,  all  ani- 
mals are  of  the  lower  classes,  boneless  in  make. 
All  at  once  a  change  takes  place,  a  marked  ad- 
vance is  made,  and  Fishes  burst  upon  the  scene. 


The  Age  of  Lower  Animals.  119 

They  come  abruptly,  without  warning, — not  grad- 
ually introduced,  step  by  step, — not  found  at  the 
beginning  of  a  new  Period,  after  a  mysterious  gap 
in  the  written  record, — but  breaking  suddenly  upon 
us,  full-blown  creatures  of  a  new  and  higher  order, 
before  the  close  of  the  great  Lower-Animal  Age. 

Until  the  year  1859  the  oldest  fish-fossils  known 
were  those  in  a  "bone-bed,"  of  the  latest  rocks  be- 
longing to  this  Age. 

The  said  "bone-bed"  strewn  thickly  with  fossil 
remains  of  fishes,  is  in  Scotland,  reaching  through 
about  a  hundred  miles  of  country.  Eye-witnesses 
describe  it  as  literally  crowded  with  fish-skeletons 
— bones  and  teeth,  spines  and  scales,  all  mingled 
together,  all  transformed  into  jetty  stone. 

The  appearance  of  these  dead  creatures  is  re- 
markable in  another  way.  There  is  every  sign 
about  them  of  a  sudden  and  violent  death — bent 
and  contorted  figures,  outspread  fins,  extended 
spines,  tails  sometimes  curved  round  so  as  to 
meet  the  head.  They  seem  to  have  passed  by 
hundreds  out  of  existence  in  sudden  agony  and 
fear,  yet  scales  and  spines  and  rays  of  delicate 
make  are  found  in  multitudes  uncrushed  and  un- 
injured. What  manner  of  death  overtook  them 
we  can  only  conjecture,  but  a  clean  sweep  ap- 


I2O  The   World's  Foundations. 

pears  to  have  been  made  of  this  early  fish-gener- 
ation. No  more  such  remains  are  found  for  some 
distance  in  the  rocks  overlying. 

Since  the  date  above  mentioned,  discovery  has 
been  made  of  one  earlier  specimen  in  the  shape 
of  a  fossil  fish  nearly  allied  to  the  modern  stur- 
geon. This  is  remarkable,  since  the  sturgeon  does 
not  rank  as  one  of  the  lower  orders  of  fishes. 

It  would  be  very  rash  to  declare  that  this  or  any 
other  particular  fish  was  the  first  of  its  kind  which 
ever  lived — in  other  words,  that  it  was  the  first 
backboned  animal  created.  More  such  remains, 
further  back  in  the  record,  may  no  doubt  be  from 
time  to  time  found. 

But  the  rocks  of  this  Age  have  been  perhaps 
more  diligently  and  widely  studied  than  any  others, 
and  amid  the  hundreds  of  earlier  animal-remains 
brought  to  light,  no  earlier  fish-fossils  have  ap- 
peared. It  is  scarcely  possible  that  any  later  dis- 
coveries should  do  away  with  the  remarkable 
manner  in  which  the  Fish  bursts  upon  us.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that,  until  near  the  end  of  this 
great  early  Period,  fishes  were  not,  and  then — sud- 
denly, so  far  as  our  knowledge  is  concerned — then, 
fishes  were. 

"God  said,  Let  there  be  ....  and  it  was  so." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    AGE    OF    FISHES. 

"Who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  that  it  should  not  be  removed 
forever." — PSA.  civ.  5. 

THE  rocks  lying  next  above  in  order,  tell  us  of  the 
great  Age  of  Fishes,  following  close  after  the  Age 
of  Lower  Animals.  Another  leaf  of  the  book  has 
to  be  turned,  and  another  chapter  has  to  be  entered 
upon. 

A  goodly  part  of  the  rocks,  now  to  be  considered, 
are  known  as  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  because 
they  are  formed  of  sandstone  more  or  less  reddish 
in  hue. 

Above  all  these  rock-strata  of  the  Fish  Age,  lie 
the  great  Coal  Formations,  and  they  again  are 
surmounted  by  more  red-tinted  sandy  rocks,  to 
which  the  name  of  New  Red  Sandstone  has  been 
given. 


122  The   World's  Foundations. 

A  large  amount  of  sandstone  belongs  to  the 
Fish  Age,  and  also  a  large  amount  of  limestone, 
abounding  in  remains  of  corals. 

Where  sandstone  is  found,  there  are  no  coral- 
remains;  but  where  limestone  is  found,  there  the 
little  coral-animals  have  evidently  worked  hard. 
At  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  in  America,  great  piles 
of  coral  of  the  Fish  Age  may  be  seen,  just  as  they 
were  long  ago  heaped  together  by  ocean  waves. 
In  English  limestone  also  of  that  period  coral-re- 
mains exist. 

These  facts  seem  to  point  once  more  to  the  pro- 
bability of  a  generally  milder  climate  in  the  earth 
than  we  now  enjoy.  Also  it  seems  that  a  great 
part  of  our  present  continents  must  still  have  been 
under  water,  overflowed  by  shallow  seas.  While 
coral-building  went  on,  there  was  most  likely  land- 
sinking;  but  this  may  have  been  only  temporary. 
The  general  tendency  of  the  continents  would  rather 
have  been  to  rise. 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that,  all  this  while, 
the  land  upon  which  we  now  live  was  being  slowly 
built  under  water.  Portions  indeed  were  already 
heaved  up  beyond  reach  of  the  waves,  sometimes 
to  remain  thus  undisturbed  until  the  present  time, 
sometimes  to  rise  and  sink  repeatedly,  before  be- 


The  Age  of  Fishes.  123 

coming  settled  dry  land.  But  as  yet  the  building 
was  far  from  finished. 

The  lowest  rocks,  or  cellars  of  the  house,  were 
done.  The  first  water  built-rocks,  or  the  base- 
ment-rooms, were  also  done.  The  second  series 
of  water-built  rocks,  or  the  ground-floor  rooms, 
were  now  in  hand.  Grain  by  grain  of  sand  drop- 
ping through  the  restless  waters;  inch  by  inch  of 
coral,  built  by  the  coral-polyps  and  ground  together 
by  the  waves; — thus  the  work  went  on. 

But  note  the  calm  forethought,  the  Fatherly  care, 
evidenced  by  all  this.  Little  knew  the  coral-polyps 
for  whom  they  were  so  busily  employed — as  little 
as  guessed  the  grains  of  sand  wherefore  they  were 
swept  to  and  fro  to  settle  down  upon  the  ocean- 
bed.  Does  the  brick  in  the  workman's  hand  know 
or  care  why  it  is  placed  in  the  wall  ?  In  either 
case  we  see  the  control  of  mind — we  see  thought, 
intention,  watchfulness. 

How  much  of  land  was  in  the  earth  at  that  date 
we  cannot  tell.  Islands  or  continents  then  existing 
may  since  have  sunk  beneath  the  waves;  on  the 
other  hand,  there  may  have  been  only  the  begin- 
ning of  our  present  continents  and  islands,  the 
higher  parts  showing  above  water,  the  lower  parts 
still  overflowed.  We  only  know  with  certainty  that 


124  The   World's  Foundations. 

much  of  our  present  dry  land  was  not  then  dry 
land. 

Beside  wide  reaches  of  coral-seas,  and  broad  ex- 
panses where  droppings  of  sand-grains  went  quietly 
on  through  the  centuries,  there  were  also  sandy  and 
muddy  flats,  lying  between  high  and  low  water  line, 
where  waves  and  sunbeams  could  play  alternately. 
This  is  shown  by  ripple-marks  and  sun -cracks, 
hardened  in  the  sandstone  of  that  period. 

A  marked  difference  is  to  be  seen  between  the  Hy- 
ing creatures  of  this  Age  and  the  Age  before. 

For  the  last  was  distinctly  the  Age  of  animals 
without  a  backbone  or  inside  skeleton.  This  was 
distinctly  an  Age  of  animals  with  a  backbone  and 
an  inside  skeleton. 

Fishes  do,  it  is  true,  belong  to  quite  the  lowest 
class  in  the  great  upper  division  of  backboned  ani- 
mals; nevertheless  they  are  of  a  rank  markedly 
higher  than  any  creature  belonging  to  the  lower 
division  of  the  Animal  Kingdom. 

In  plants,  as  well  as  in  animals,  there  was  ad- 
vance beyond  the  former  age.  Seaweeds  seem  no 
longer  to  have  stood  almost  alone.  Ferns,  and 
ground-pines,  and  other  members  of  the  highest 
class  of  Flowerless  Plants,  as  well  as  conifers,  which 


The  Age  of  Fishes.  125 

belong  to  the  lowest  class  of  Flowering  Plants, 
grew  in  plenty.  Each  tree  and  plant  was  indeed 
unlike  any  tree  or  plant  ever  seen  now;  still  there 
was  just  enough  likeness  for  botanists  to  be  able  to 
name  many  of  them. 

The  bare  rocks  had  a  green  clothing  at  last.  No 
oaks,  no  elms,  no  beeches,  no  fruit-trees,  graced 
those  early  forests,  yet  they  were  not  lacking  in 
beauty.  Many  kinds  of  tall  and  graceful  ferns  grew 
there;  and  huge  tree-ferns;  and  great  cone-bearing 
trees,  like  pines;  and  yet  other  ancient  trees  with 
large  trunks  thirty  feet  high,  and  long  palm-leaf 
fronds  waving  in  a  crown  at  the  top. 

No  four-footed  creatures  ranged  through  the  for- 
ests, and  not  a  sign  has  been  found  of  bird,  or  even 
of  reptile.  Yet  the  woods,  silent  but  for  the  murmur- 
ing of  the  wind  and  the  rustling  of  the  fronds,  were 
probably  enlivened  by  the  hum  and  buzz  of  many 
an  insect — such  insects  as  we  do  not  see  in  these 
later  days. 

For  the  earliest-known  insect-remains  have  been 
found  in  the  rocks  of  the  Fish  Age,  being  remains 
not  only  of  the  earliest-known  insects,  but  of  the 
earliest-known  land-animals  of  any  kind.  It  is  re- 
markable that  hitherto  we  have  had  to  speak  of  sea- 
life  only.  One  of  these  insect-fossils  is  of  a  huge  May- 


126  The   World's  Foundations. 

fly,  no  less  than  five  inches  across  from  tip  to  tip 
of  its  wings.  If  such  May-flies  darted  to  and  fro  in 
the  air,  what  manner  of  spiders  and  ants  and  beetles 
may  not  at  the  same  time  have  crept  over  the 
ground  ? 

Bat  no  four-footed  beasts  were  yet  created,  and 
no  reptiles.  Not  even  the  croak  of  a  frog  seems 
to  have  mingled  with  the  buzz  of  insects  in  the 
woods. 

With  regard  to  birds  we  can  say  little.  It  is  re- 
markable how  few  remains  of  birds  have  been  found, 
even  in  rocks  of  much  later  date,  belonging  to  peri- 
ods when  they  are  believed  to  have  abounded. 

We  must  remember  that  these  fossils  of  animals 
have  been  almost  always  preserved,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, under  water.  Now  a  bird  is  of  very  light 
make — so  light  that  if  he  dies  and  falls  into  the  sea, 
his  body  will  probably  float  until  it  decays  or  is  de- 
voured. Certain  very  large  birds,  such  as  os- 
triches, would  form  an  exception;  but  this  explains 
why  so  very  few  of  the  smaller  birds  are  found  as 
fossils.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  say,  from  the 
rock-records,  at  what  time  birds  were  probably  first 
created. 

When  the  word  "time"  is  used  thus  in  Geology, 
it  should  be  understood  as  reckoned,  not  by  years 


The  Age  of  Fishes.  127 

and  centuries,  but  by  the  successive  rock-layers. 
The  Geologic  Ages  cannot  be  counted  in  years,  for 
the  rock-layers  supply  us  with  no  dates,  and  guesses 
are  worthless. 

If  few  living  creatures  as  yet  inhabited  the  land,  it 
was  not  thus  with  the  sea.  The  ocean  teemed  with 
life,  not  only  as  it  had  done  in  the  past,  but  even 
more  abundantly,  for  this  was  the  great  Age  of 
Fishes,  and  of  fish-fossils  in  the  rocks  there  is 
indeed  a  rich  supply.  The  number  of  British 
Species  alone — that  is,  the  number  of  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  fishes  which  swam  about  in  the 
shallow  seas  overflowing  a  great  part  of  England 
and  Scotland — amounts  to  more  than  one  hundred. 

There  were  a  good  many  sharks,  but  the  greater 
proportion  of  fishes  were  of  a  kind  remarkable  for 
their  shining  scales.  In  the  present  day  there  are 
only  a  few  belonging  to  this  family,  and  they  are 
only  found  in  some  rivers  of  North  Africa  and  North 
America.  In  those  times  there  were  very  large 
numbers  belonging  to  this  family  and  they  flour- 
ished in  British  seas  as  well  as  elsewhere. 

It  is  a  question  whether  many  of  them  were  not 
fresh-water  fish;  if  so,  Britain  must  by  that  time 
have  risen  so  far  out  of  the  ocean  as  to  have  been 
no  longer  overflowed  by  the  salt  waves;  although 


128  The   World's  Foundations. 

wide   shallow  lakes   must   have   been   spread    over 
considerable  parts  of  England  and  Scotland. 

In  addition  to  fishes,  there  were  plenty  of  corals 
and  sponges;  also  a  new  kind  of  large  trilobite;  also 
enormous  lobsters,  from  four  to  six  feet  in  length. 
These  last  would  be  somewhat  unpleasant  to  meet 
upon  the  seashore.  The  great  King  Crab  of  China, 
three  feet  in  length  pales  before  the  gigantic  lobster 
of  olden  times. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE    AGE     OF    COAL. 

•  O  Lord,  how  manifold  are  Thy  works  !  in  wisdom  hast  Thou  made 
them  all:  the  earth  is  full  of  Thy  riches."— PSA.  civ.  24. 

IN  the  last  chapter  I  spoke  of  the  lower  stories  of 
the  great  Earth-crust  building  as  completed — cel- 
lars, kitchens,  basement,  and  ground-floor.  But, 
on  second  thoughts,  this  was  surely  a  mistake. 
The  building  has  not  yet  advanced  so  far  above 
the  foundations.  We  have  but  reached,  as  it  were, 
the  vast  cellars  of  the  house,  wherein  our  Heav- 
enly Father,  with  thoughtful  care  for  future  gen- 
erations of  men,  has  laid  up  an  exhaustless  store 
of  coal. 

When  the  great  Age  or  Day  of  Coal-preparation 
rolled  in  upon  the  Earth,  there  were  as  yet  no 
coal-seams  hidden  in  her  crust,  no  wide-reaching 
coal-fields  in  Europe  or  America.  Sandstone,  and 


130  The   World's  Foundations. 

limestone,  and  other  rocks  were  built  one  upon 
another,  but  of  coal-strata  none  could  have  been 
discovered  by  the  most  patient  mining. 

We  find  ourselves,  in  the  Coal  Age,  upon  a  world, 
no  longer  of  bare  rocks  and  dreary  fungus,  no  longer 
of  few  islands  and  scanty  woods.  The  continents 
are  rising  out  of  the  ocean,  and  also  out  of  the 
broad  inland  seas;  not  indeed  in  a  manner  of  un- 
broken advance,  but  rather  as  the  tide  comes  in 
gaining  ground  upon  the  whole,  though  often  seem- 
ing to  lose  it.  Just  so,  with  many  risings  and  sink- 
ings, but  with  a  general  upward  movement  upon 
the  whole,  low  extensive  lands  have  emerged  from 
the  waters.  And  from  shore  to  shore  these  lands 
are  densely  covered  with  a  wild  luxuriance  of  forest- 
growth.  The  growth,  it  is  true,  differs  greatly  from 
forests  of  modern  days,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  lack- 
ing in  grandeur  and  beauty. 

Let  us  try  to  picture  to  ourselves  what  kind  of 
scenery  was  to  be  found  upon  earth  in  those  days. 
A  painting  of  one  part  would  be  a  painting  of  ten 
thousand  parts,  for  the  same  forests  ranged  north, 
south,  east,  and  west,  in  Europe  and  America,  in 
the  tropics  and  in  the  Arctic  zone.  One  kind  of 
climate  seems,  at  least  in  a  great  measure,  to  have 
overspread  the  earth. 


The  Age  of  Coal.  131 


Come  with  me,*  then,  in  fancy,  leaving  the  pres- 
ent far  behind  us,  back  to  those  early  ages,  and 
stand  with  me  upon  some  low  ancient  hill,  which 
overlooks  the  flat  and  swampy  lands  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent.  Few  heights  of  any  magnitude  are 
yet  to  be  seen.  The  future  Rocky  Mountains  lie 
still  beneath  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  are  the 
scene  of  slow  and  busy  limestone-making — one  of 
God's  workshops,  where  myriads  of  workers  carry 
out  His  will.  The  Alleghanies  are  not  yet  heaved 
up  above  the  level  surface  of  the  ground,  for  over 
them  are  spread  the  boggy  lands  and  thick  forests 
of  future  coal-fields.  The  Mississippi  is  not  yet  in 
existence,  or  if  in  existence,  is  but  an  unimpor- 
tant little  river;  for  those  low  lands  can  supply  no 
such  mighty  volume  of  water  as  now  rolls  into  the 
Mexican  Gulf. 

Below  us,  as  we  stand,  we  can  see  a  broad  and 
sluggish  stream  creeping  seawards,  widening  often- 
times into  shallow  lakes.  And  either  side  of  the 
stream,  on  broad  marshes  and  swampy  plains,  vast 
forests  extend  in  every  direction  as  far  as  the 
horizon,  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  distant  ocean, 

*  I  must  confess  my  debt,  in  this  little  description,  to  a  paragraph 
of  vivid  word-painting  in  "Analogies  of  Nature  and  Grace,"  by  the 
Rev.  Professor  Pritchard,  D.D. 


132  The  World's  Foundations. 

clothing  each  hilly  rise,  and  in  rich  luxuriance  send- 
ing islets  of  matted  trees  and  shrubs — such  as  are 
seen  in  the  present  day  in  tropic  countries — floating 
down  the  waters. 

Strange  forests  these  to  our  unaccustomed  eyes. 
No  oaks  or  elms,  no  beeches  or  birches,  no  planes 
or  sycamores,  no  palms  or  many-colored  wild- 
flowers  are  there;  but  enormous  club-mosses,  and 
gigantic  horse-tails,  and  splendid  pines,  and  abun- 
dance of  ancient  trees  with  wide  waving  frond-like 
leaves,  and  graceful  tree-ferns,  and  countless  ferns 
of  lower  growth  filling  up  all  gaps. 

No  wild  quadrupeds  of  the  higher  grades  yet 
breathe  in  any  quarter  of  the  earth,  and  the 
silent  forests  are  enlivened  only  by  the  stirring  of 
the  breeze  among  the  trees  and  the  occasional  hum 
of  large  insects  darting  to  and  fro.  But  upon  the 
margin  of  yonder  stream  a  huge  four-footed  crea- 
ture, like  a  gigantic  salamander,  creeps  slowly 
along,  leaving  the  impress  of  his  broad  soft  feet  in 
the  yielding  mud,  while  a  gleam  of  light  plays  upon 
the  hard  and  shiny  scales  in  which  his  body  is 
clothed,  as  he  slinks  under  the  herbage  overhanging 
the  water  and  disappears. 

Only  a  gleam  of  light,  not  sunshine,  for  little  or 
no  sunshine  can  creep  through  the  misty  atmos- 


The  Age  of  Coal.  133 

phere.  The  earth  seems  clothed  in  a  garment  of 
clouds,  and  the  air  is  positively  reeking  with  damp 
oppressive  warmth,  like  the  air  of  a  hot-house. 
This  explains  the  luxuriant  growth  of  foliage. 

Could  we  thus  stand  upon  the  hill-tops,  and  keep 
watch  through  the  long  Coal-building  ages,  we 
should  see  generation  after  generation  of  forest- 
trees  and  undergrowth,  living,  withering,  dying, 
falling  to  earth.  Slowly  a  layer  of  dead  and  de- 
caying vegetation  thus  collects,  over  which  the 
forest  flourishes  still;  tree  for  tree,  and  shrub  for 
shrub,  springing  up  in  the  place  of  each  one  that 
dies. 

Then  after  a  while,  through  the  working  of  the 
mighty  underground  forces,  the  broad  lands  sink 
a  little  way — perhaps  only  a  few  feet — and  the -rush- 
ing ocean-tide  pours  in,  overwhelming  the  forests, 
trees  and  plants  and  living  creatures,  in  one  dire 
desolation.  Nay,  not  dire,  for  the  ruin  is  not  ob- 
jectless or  needless.  It  is  all  a  part  of  the  same 
wonderful  foreseeing  preparation  for  the  life  of  man 
upon  earth. 

Under  the  waves  lie  the  overwhelmed  forests, 
prostrate  trunks  and  broken  stumps  in  count- 
less numbers  overspreading  the  gathered  vegetable 
remains  of  centuries  before.  Upon  these  the  sea 


134  The   World's  Foundations. 

builds  a  protecting  covering  of  sand  or  mud,  more 
or  less  thick,  and  sea-creatures  live  there,  and 
fishes  swim  hungrily  to  and  fro,  and  the  latest 
generations  of  trilobites  die  and  find  a  sepulchre 
in  the  unfinished  layers,  by-and-by  to  become 
firm  rock,  with  stony  animal  remains  embedded 
in  it. 

After  a  while- — how  long  a  while  we  have  no 
means  of  even  guessing — the  land  rises  again  to  its 
former  position.  Bare  sandy  flats  once  more  ex- 
tend, as  in  former  days,  but  they  do  not  long  re- 
main bare.  Lichens  and  hardier  plants  soon  find 
a  home,  and  earth  gradually  collects  —  possibly 
brought  by  riverfloods — and  the  light  spores  of 
those  ancient  forest-trees,  easily  carried  by  the 
wind,  take  root  and  grow,  and  luxuriant  forests, 
like  to  the  last,  spring  anew  into  being.  Again  the 
wide  stream  bears  upon  its  waters  islets  of  matted 
plants  and  trees;  and  upon  river  and  lake-bottoms 
and  over  the  low  damp  lands  rich  layers  of  decay- 
ing vegetation  again  collect,  increasing  through  the 
centuries.  Then  once  more  the  land  is  seen  to  sink, 
and  the  ocean-tide  pours  in,  and  another  sandy  or 
muddy  stratum  is  built  up  on  the  overflowed  lands. 
Thus  the  second  layer  of  forest-growth  is  buried 
like  the  first,  and  both  lie  quietly  through  the  long 


The  Age  of  Coal  135 

ages  following,  hidden  from  sight,  slowly  changing 
in  their  substance  from  wood  to  shining  coal. 

Thus  time  after  time,  here  twice  or  thrice,  there 
far  more  frequently,  the  land  rose  and  sank,  rose 
and  sank,  again  and  again,  that  supplies  of  coal 
might  be  laid  up  in  earth's  store-houses  for  our  use. 
Not  that  a  whole  continent  is  believed  to  have  risen 
or  sunk  at  once;  but  here  at  one  period,  there  at 
another  period,  the  movements  probably  went  on. 

How  rapidly  the  growth,  death,  and  decay  of 
trees  and  plants  may  have  taken  place  in  those 
early  times,  under  circumstances  so  different  from 
our  own,  we  have  no  power  to  say.  Also  we  are 
utterly  in  the  dark  as  to  whether  the  land  rose  and 
sank  slowly  through  long  periods  of  time,  or 
whether  the  movements  came  about  suddenly 
through  mighty  heavings  from  below.  Some  facts 
would  seem  to  point  to  one  conclusion,  some  to 
the  other. 

The  seams  of  coal,  found  between  other  rock- 
strata,  vary  much.  Some  are  scarcely  thicker  than 
a  piece  of  paper,  while  others  are  as  much  as  thirty 
or  forty  feet  in  thickness.  One  to  ten  feet  is,  how- 
ever, more  usual. 

When  we  consider   the  amount  of  forest-trees 


136  The   World's  Foundations. 

which  would  be  needed,  when  decayed,  pressed 
together,  and  hardened,  to  form  even  one  foot  of 
coal,  the  matter  is  sufficiently  bewildering.  We 
can  scarcely  venture  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 
length  of  time  needed,  according  to  our  present 
notions  and  experience,  to  form  a  layer  of  vege- 
tation thick  enough  to  be  transformed  into  thirty 
or  forty  feet  of  coal.  Nor  is  it  needful  that  we 
should,  since  our  rates  of  measurement  as  to  the 
growth  and  decay  of  plants  are  useless  to  explain 
what  may  have  been  the  rate  of  their  growth  and 
decay  in  long-past  ages. 

Beneath  each  layer  of  coal  is  commonly  found  a 
layer  of  clay,  varying  from  a  few  inches  to  many 
feet  in  thickness.  This  clay  is  sometimes  called 
"fire-clay,"  because  out  of  it  bricks  can  be  made 
which  will  stand  fire. 

For  a  long  while  people  were  puzzled  by  these 
clay  layers.  They  are  seen  to  be  more  or  less  dis- 
colored, as  if  liquid  from  the  decaying  trees  and 
plants  had  soaked  into  them.  It  is  now  believed 
that  the  clays  were  once  the  soils  of  the  ground, 
upon  which  the  forest  grew,  one  such  soil  to  each 
forest  being  shown  by  one  layer  of  clay  under  each 
layer  of  coal. 

Some  very  curious  vegetable  remains  were  found 


The  Age  of  Coal.  137 


in  the  clays,  and  were  supposed  to  be  a  kind  of 
branching  water-plant.  The  name  Stigmaria  was 
given  to  the  plant.  But  after  a  while  it  was  dis- 
covered that  instead  of  being  a  separate  plant  it 
was  really  only  the  branching  root  of  the  tree 
Sigillaria — already  spoken  of  as  an  ancient  tree 
with  waving  frond-like  leaves.  The  trunk  and  the 
root  were  found  joined  together  in  a  way  that  could 
not  be  mistaken.  Many  other  roots  in  these  clay 
layers  were  once  taken  for  water-plants. 

So  the  clay  was  the  forest-soil,  and  the  roots 
of  the  forest-trees  grew  in  that  soil,  while  the  trees 
themselves  flourished  above. 

The  greater  mass  of  vegetable  remains,  making 
up  the  coal,  decayed  slowly;  but  when  the  final 
ruin  of  the  forest  came,  whole  trunks  were  snapped 
off  close  to  the  roots  and  flung  down.  These  are 
now  found  in  numbers  on  the  tops  of  the  coal- 
layers,  the  barks  being  flattened  and  changed  to 
shining  black  coal. 

Sometimes  a  trunk,  instead  of  falling,  kept  its 
upright  position  under  water,  and  was  built  up  in 
that  manner  by  the  sand  layers.  The  inside  of  the 
tree-trunk  decayed,  and  sand  gradually  filled  it, 
while  the  bark  changed  to  coal.  Such  trunks  are 
common  in  coal-mines,  and  are  much  dreaded  by 


138  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  miners,  for  they  often  fall  suddenly,  and  kill 
any  one  that  happens  to  be  below.  The  coal-bark 
cannot  support  the  heavy  sandstone  inside,  when 
other  supports  are  removed  by  the  working  of  the 
mine. 

These  tree  trunks,  as  above  said,  are  often  up- 
right. This  only  means  that  they  are  upright  as 
regards  the  coal-layers  in  which  they  grew.  If 
the  coal-layer  is  flat,  the  tree  trunk  will  still  point 
upwards.  But  if,  as  is  more  usual,  the  coal-layer 
has  been  heaved  into  a  slanting  or  nearly  upright 
position,  then  the  tree-trunk  will  slant,  and  may 
even  lie  flat  across  the  roof  of  the  mine,  though  its 
position  really  is  upright  from  the  coal.  The  dan- 
ger to  miners  of  such  trees  falling  from  the  roof 
may  be  readily  understood. 

How  wonderful  the  tale  of  olden  days  told  to 
us  by  these  buried  forests,  by  the  sand-filled  tree- 
trunks,  by  the  fossil  leaves  and  stems  in  coal,  by 
the  old  clay  forest-soils,  and  by  the  ancient  tree- 
roots  still  remaining  in  those  soils! 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MORE  ABOUT  THE  AGE  OF  COAL. 

"Many,  O  Lord  my  God,  are  Thy  wonderful  works  which  Thou 
hast  done."— PSA.  xl.  5. 

ALTHOUGH  the  thought  of  Coal  is  put  strongly  for- 
ward, in  speaking  of  this  particular  Age,  because 
it  is  of  chief  importance  to  man;  yet  the  actual 
amount  of  coal  is  small,  compared  with  the  amount 
of  other  kinds  of  rock. 

For  instance,  the  coal-beds  in  South  Wales  are 
about  ten  thousand  feet  thick.  But  the  thickness 
of  the  actual  coal-seams,  if  put  all  together,  would 
be  only  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet. 

In  one  place  near  Swansea  there  are  coal-rocks 
more  than  three  thousand  feet  thick.  Sixteen  sep- 
arate masses  of  sandstone  lie  in  these  rocks,  one 
alone  being  five  hundred  feet  in  thickness.  Layers 
of  other  rocks  also  part  the  sandstone  layers.  The 
coal-seams  or  actual  coal-layers,  lying  between  the 


140  The  World's  Foundations. 

rocks,  are  sixteen  in  number,  some  only  one  foot 
thick,  some  more, — one  as  much  as  nine  feet.  Yet 
these  slender  black  bands  tell  of  no  less  than  six- 
teen distinct  forests,  each  of  which  in  turn  sprang 
into  being,  flourished  through  centuries,  and  was 
overwhelmed.  The  tale  is  amazing;  but  in  other 
places  the  number  of  buried  forests  is  far  greater. 

In  the  Coal-seams  abundant  remains  of  plants  and 
trees  are  found,  also  some  remains  of  land  animals. 
In  limestone  of  the  same  period  there  are  fossils 
of  sea-shells,  corals,  and  other  salt-water  animals. 

The  coal-layers  thus  tell  of  forests  on  land;  the 
limestone  tells  of  overflowing  ocean-water,  and  the 
sandstone  may  tell  of  either  salt  or  fresh  water. 
When  coal  and  sandstone  and  limestone  are  found, 
built  up  alternately,  one  layer  over  another,  we  are 
reading  of  strange  changes  in  the  past — of  a  land 
at  one  time  dry,  or  at  least  boggy,  at  another  time 
under  the  sea,  at  another  time  perhaps  under  a 
fresh-water  lake. 

These  rocks  of  the  Coal  Period  are  all  stratified. 
In  any  piece  of  coal  you  may  see  the  thin  even  layers. 
They  show  distinctly,  but  do  not  separate  easily. 

The  climate  of  earth  in  the  Age  of  Coal  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  warm  and  moist,  with  heavy 


More  about  the  Age  of  Coal.  141 

mists  and  little  sunshine.  This  would  favor  the 
rich  growth  of  such  plants  as  then  flourished. 

The  abundance  of  ferns  seems  to  tell  of  a  damp 
atmosphere,  and  the  great  extent  of  forests  over 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  made  up  of  the  same  kinds 
of  trees,  whether  in  the  tropics  or  in  the  far  north, 
seems  to  tell  of  a  very  equal  climate,  little  hotter 
in  one  place  than  in  another.  What  has  caused 
the  change  we  do  not  know,  any  more  than  we 
know  the  cause  of  the  intense  cold  which  seems 
to  have  reigned  over  the  earth  much  later.  There 
is,  however,  little  doubt  about  this  prevailing  mild- 
ness. Corals,  which  now  are  only  to  be  found  in 
warm  southern  seas,  then  lived  in  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
Vegetation  now  is  quite  different  in  different  parts 
of  the  world,  but  then  the  same  trees  grew  in 
Greenland  and  in  France. 

Although  the  climate  was  probably  warm  and 
damp,  it  is  not  supposed  to  have  been  intensely 
hot.  In  a  tropical  climate  vegetation  decays  very 
rapidly,  and  this  would  not  agree  with  coal-making, 
which  requires  slow  decay  and  large  deposits  of 
vegetable  remains.  It  was  probably  warm  and  soft 
and  moist,  with  no  extremes  of  either  heat  or 
cold. 

Some   believe  that  a  very  much  larger  amount 


142  The   World's  Foundations, 

of  Carbonic  Acid  Gas  was  in  the  atmosphere  then 
than  now,  but  others  doubt  this. 

Great  numbers  of  vegetable  fossils  are  found  in 
coal — leaf  and  fern  impressions,  seeds,  branches, 
barks,  and  trunks.  Most  of  the  plants  and  trees 
were  flowerless  in  kind.  Possibly  the  fact  that 
they  had  not  for  the  most  part  regular  seeds,  but 
tiny  light  spores,  easily  borne  upon  the  breeze,  may 
help  to  explain  the  vast  extent  of  the  forests. 

Some  hundreds  of  different  kinds  of  ferns,  club- 
mosses  and  horse-tails,  are  known  to  have  grown. 
They  seem  to  have  been  chiefly  remarkable  for 
their  great  size,  as  compared  with  such  plants  of 
the  present  day.  Now  a  forest  of  non-flowering 
plants  would  be  scarcely  higher  than  a  man's 
head,  but  things  were  different  then. 

Tree-ferns,  which  in  these  days  grow  only  in 
warm  countries,  in  those  days  flourished  over  all 
the  earth.  Club-mosses,  which  now  are  never  seen 
more  than  four  or  five  feet  high,  then  grew  to  a 
stature  of  sixty  or  seventy  feet.  The  horse-tails 
of  the  present  stand  at  the  most  scarcely  three 
feet  above  ground,  and  are  hollow-stemmed;  but 
their  nearest  relatives  of  the  Coal  Period  had 
woody  trunks  as  much  as  twenty  feet  in  height. 


W.  Foundations.  KERN    FOSSILS    IN  COAL. 


p.   142. 


More  about  the  Age  of  Coal.  143 

The  ancient  tree  "Sigillaria,"  now  never  seen, 
was  then  abundant.  Its  fossil  was  at  first  taken 
for  that  of  a  fern,  until  it  was  found  to  have  had 
long  leaves  unlike  that  of  any  known  fern.  The 
trunk  often  reached  a  height  of  sixty  feet  or 
more,  being  bare,  except  at  the  top,  where  the 
long  frond-like  leaves  grew.  This  tree  belonged 
to  the  lower  division  of  plants,  but  it  seems  to 
have  been  superior  to  any  flowerless  plants  of  the 
present  day. 

The  cone-bearing  trees,  somewhat  like  our  mod- 
ern pines,  were  the  only  known  specimens  of  the 
upper  division  of  flowering  plants.  Pine-trunks 
have  been  found  in  coal-measures,  over  forty  feet 
in  height. 

No  palms  were  yet  created,  so  far  as  we  know. 
It  was  once  thought  that  the  fossil  remains  of  a 
palm  had  been  ijund,  but  the  tree  was  afterwards 
decided  to  have  been  only  a  kind  of  pine. 

In  animal  remains,  advance  is  plainly  to  be  seen. 
Not  only  do  we  find,  as  before,  creatures  belong- 
ing to  all  the  lower  classes  living  in  the  sea;  not 
only  insects  living  on  the  land;  not  only  fishes 
inhabiting  the  ocean;  but  also  another  upward 
step. 


144  The   World's  Foundations. 

There  is  a  kind  of  half-class,  midway  between 
Fishes  and  Reptiles.  A  crocodile  and  a  snake  are 
True  Reptiles,  cold-blooded  and  air-breathing.  A 
frog  and  a  lizard  are  very  nearly  True  Reptiles. 
They  are  cold-blooded,  and  during  part  of  their 
lives  they  breathe  air;  but  during  another  part 
they  breathe  in  water  like  a  fish.  They  are 
therefore  called  Amphibians/ 

Many  remains  of  large  ancient  lizards  or  sala- 
manders* have  been  discovered.  They  seem  to 
have  been  covered  with  hard  shiny  scales.  One 
was  three  feet  and  a  half  long;  and  another  had 
a  skull  seven  inches  wide. 

A  slab  of  rock  was  found  in  the  Coal  Strata  of 
America  with  the  footprints  of  such  an  animal 
dented  and  hardened  upon  it — six  distinct  steps 
of  feet  about  four  inches  broad,  the  hind-foot 
four-toed,  the  fore-foot  five-toed  or  five-fingered. 
Strange  remembrance  this  of  a  bygone  age,  when 
the  ungainly  creature  walked  over  the  soft  mud 
of  the  half-built  American  continent,  leaving  his 
"  footprints  in  the  sands  of  time "  for  future  gen- 
erations of  men  to  see  and  consider. 

Another  variety  of  this  animal  t  seems  to  have 
had  webbed  feet  and  to  have  lived  entirely  in  the 

*  Labyrinthodonts.  f  Enaliosaur  or  Sea-Saurian. 


More  about  the  Age  of  CoaL  145 

water.  This  is  the  earliest  known  specimen  be- 
lieved to  have  belonged  to  the  True  Reptiles. 

We  are  now  reaching  the  close  of  the  great 
Ancient-Animal  Period — the  Period  of  much  ocean 
and  little  land,  the  Period  of  Lower  Creatures  and 
Fishes,  the  Period  of  Non-flowering  Plants,  the  Pe- 
riod of  a  wide-spread  mild  climate,  the  Period  of 
Rock  and  Coal  preparation,  the  period  of  lower- 
story  building  in  the  house  which  was  to  become 
the  Home  of  Man. 

Much  difficulty  has  been  found  in  Great  Britain  in 
drawing  the  dividing -line  between  the  Primary 
Rocks  and  the  Secondary  Rocks. 

At  one  time  the  last  of  the  Primary  and  the  first 
of  the  Secondary  were  classed  together  as  the  New 
Red  Sandstone.  Both  these  have  in  them  a  large 
amount  of  red  sandstone  and  are  alike  scantily  fur- 
nished with  animal  remains.  It  was,  however, 
found  on  examination  that  such  animal  remains 
as  did  exist  in  the  lower  rocks  were  much  more 
closely  related  to  Primary  than  to  Secondary  ani- 
mals. So  the  dividing-line  was  drawn  above  them. 

Some  faint  signs  have  been  seen,  in  the  closing 
rocks  of  this  first  great  period,  which  may  point  to  a 
change  of  climate  and  to  floating  ice  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  England. 


146  The   World's  Foundations. 

The  end  of  the  Ancient-Animal  Period  is  marked 
in  America  by  signs  of  grand  disturbances.  In  the 
course  of  these  disturbances  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains were  uplifted,  and  the  vast  coal  beds  were 
greatly  heaved  and  tilted  and  "faulted."  Enor- 
mous pressure  must  have  been  used  so  to  bend  and 
curve,  to  crumple  and  fold  them.  "  Faults  "  on  a 
tremendous  scale  may  be  seen,  as,  for  instance,  in 
one  place,  where  a  slip  in  the  rock-layers  has  taken 
place,  twenty  miles  long  and  twenty  thousand  feet 
deep;  yet  the  crack  is  so  narrow  that  a  man  may 
stand  astride  it,  with  one  foot  on  each  side. 

Some  hold  that  all  these  movements  were  prob- 
ably slow  and  gradual,  but  the  theory  may  well  be 
doubted  in  the  face  of  such  landslips  as  these.  We 
have,  however,  no  means  of  coming  to  any  certain 
conclusion. 

Thus  in  some  parts  of  the  world  by  great  upheav- 
als and  downsinkings,  in  other  parts  of  the  world  by 
quietly-continued  rock-building,  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  by  the  dying  out  of  old  kinds  of  animals  and 
the  entrance  of  new  kinds  upon  the  scene,  the  Pri- 
mary Period  passed  away,  and  the  Secondary  Period 
was  ushered  in. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE     AGE    OF    REPTILES. 
"Him  who  alone  doeth  great  wonders."— PSA.  cxxxvi.  4. 

LEAVING  behind  us  the  great  "Ancient-Life"  Peri- 
od, or,  as  we  may  call  it,  the  Ancient  History  of 
Geology,  we  reach  the  great  "Middle-Life"  Period, 
or,  as  we  may  call  it,  the  Mediaeval  History  of  Geol- 
ogy. And  a  strange  time  this  Mediaeval  Period  was 
upon  the  earth  ! 

It  is  no  fairy-tale  which  I  have  to  relate;  but  the 
wildest  fairy-tale  of  heroes  and  dragons,  griffins  and 
monsters,  never  surpassed  the  wilder  reality  of  the 
earth's  inhabitants  in  those  days.  Only  the  human 
hero  was  lacking.  The  dragons  were  there  but  no 
St.  George.  He  would  have  found  foes  enough  to 
test  his  prowess  in  the  unfinished  land  of  future  Mer- 
rie  England — strange  uncouth  fantastic  monsters, 
enormous  in  size  and  terrible  to  look  upon,  with 


148  The  World's  Foundations. 

shiny  scales  and  big  eyes  and  great  teeth;  some 
with  long  snake-like  necks;  and  some  with  fins  for 
use  in  the  water;  and  some  with  legs  for  use  on 
land;  and  some  with  wings  for  use  in  the  air. 

Yes,  actually  wings  !  Not  birds  were  these  crea- 
tures, but  huge  winged  reptiles:  the  dragons  of  fairy- 
tales existing  in  real  life.  I  am  conjuring  up  no  fancy 
legend.  •  The  fossil  bones  of  these  enormous  brutes 
are  found  strewn  through  the  rocks  of  that  period, 
and  their  footprints  are  to  be  seen  by  thousands  in 
the  hardened  mud.  No  mistake  about  the  matter 
thus  far  is  possible,  though  of  course  many  mistakes 
are  more  than  possible  about  the  precise  form  of 
any  particular  animal.  But  that  such  creatures  did 
live  we  know — immense  sea-serpents  in  the  ocean, 
tremendous  crocodiles  in  the  rivers,  gigantic  bird- 
reptiles  on  the  land,  fearful  flying  dragons  through 
the  air. 

The  biggest  lizard  ever  now  seen  in  the  hottest 
country  in  the  world  is  not  more  than  three  or  four 
feet  in  length,  and  the  longest  reptile  of  any  kind  is 
little  over  thirty  feet,  while  by  far  the  greater  num- 
ber are  under  ten  feet.  In  our  quiet  old  England 
no  wild  beasts  prowl — not  even  a  wolf — to  frighten 
a  village  child  in  the  loneliest  place. 

Fish-reptiles  and  bird-reptiles  are  creatures  un- 


The  Age  of  Reptiles.  -  149 

known,  and  flying  dragons  are  laughed  at  as  only 
the  creation  of  some  excited  brain. 

But  in  those  days  British  rivers  were  haunted  by 
crocodiles  forty  feet  and  more  in  length,  with  huge 
swimming  lizards  to  match.  Bat-like  dragon-like 
winged  reptiles  of  all  sizes,  from  a  few  inches  to 
over  sixteen  feet  in  stretch  of  wings,  flapped 
through  British  air.  And  over  British  land'  stalked 
enormous  bird-reptiles,  having  four  legs,  but  often 
rearing  themselves  up,  gorilla-like,  to  walk  upon 
two.  Verily  a  fearful  place  to  live  in  would  Britain 
have  been  then,  and  not  Britain  only,  for  the  same 
gigantic  monsters  ranged  over  the  world,  through 
the  European  and  American  continents  alike.  We 
may  be  thankful  that  they  died  out  before  the  crea- 
tion of  man. 

One  cannot  help  wondering  whether,  although 
they  did  so  die  out  in  very  great  measure,  by  or  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  Middle  Period,  some  few  kinds 
may  not  have  long  lingered,  becoming  more  and 
more  rare.  Crocodiles  and  the  smaller  sorts  of 
lizards  do  last  up  to  the  present  day.  It  is  not 
absolutely  impossible  that  a  small  number  of  the 
strange  and  uncouth  scaly  monsters,  flying  through 
the  air  and  striding  over  the  land,  may  have  re- 
mained through  succeeding  ages,  each  generation 


150  The  World's  Foundations. 

smaller  than  the  last,  yet  not  all  completely  dying 
out  until  after  the  creation  of  Adam.  If  only  one 
or  two  such  animals  had  been  seen  by  only  a  few 
men  in  earliest  times  of  human  history,  it  would 
have  been  quite  enough  to  give  rise  to  all 
the  mysterious  legends  and  wild  nursery  tales 
of  dragons  and  griffins,  handed  down  through 
uncounted  generations,  and  coming  from  nobody 
knows  where. 

This  is  only  conjecture,  and  we  have  no  proof 
that  so  it  was.  But  the  fact  that  no  remains  of 
such  creatures  have  been  found  in  rocks  of  later 
date,  is  no  absolute  proof  to  the  contrary.  It  only 
proves  that  if  such  creatures  did  survive  through 
later  ages — which  they  may  or  may  not  have  done 
— their  remains  were  either  not  preserved  at  all, 
which  is  quite  possible,  or  geologists  have  not  ex- 
amined those  rocks  in  which  they  lie,  which  is  quite 
possible  also. 

Some  of  the  animals  which  haunted  the  earth 
in  Secondary  Days  were  Amphibians,  though  the 
greater  proportion  were  True  Reptiles.  The  Am- 
phibians seem  to  have  come  to  their  climax,  as  to 
size  and  numbers,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Period, 
and  afterwards  to  have  gradually  lessened. 


The  Age  of  Reptiles.  1 5 1 

The  hand-shaped  tracks  of  one  kind*  are  plentiful 
in  America.  Many  of  them  walked  on  all-fours,  as 
lizards  do  now,  but  some  seem  to  have  gone  on 
their  hind-legs,  rarely  bringing  their  fore-feet  to 
the  ground.  One  of  these  big  fellows,  marching  on 
his  hind-feet  over  American  mud,  has  left  eleven 
distinct  foot-marks,  each  orre  no  less  than  twenty 
inches  long,  while  the  length  of  his  stride  was  as 
much  as  three  feet. 

Our  little  smooth-skinned  lizards  and  salaman- 
ders, of  modern  days,  would  have  reason  to  tremble 
at  the  sight  of  their  enormous  upright  scaly  relative 
of  olden  times.  Tiny  lizard-like  animals,  however, 
existed  then  also,  for  their  tracks  are  found,  not 
over  a  quarter  of  an  inch  across. 

Another  of  the  larger  specimens  found  in  Europe 
had  a  skull  two  feet  in  length,  and  teeth  three 
inches  long. 

Both  Europe  and  America  abounded  in  Swim- 
ming Saurians.  By  a  "saurian"  is  meant  simply  a 
"scale-covered  reptile." 

Some  of  these  ancient  water-lizards  were  of  im- 
mense size.  The  remains  of  one  kindf  show  it  to 
have  been  often  from  ten  to  forty  feet  in  length, 
with  paddles  much  like  those  of  a  tortoise  or  a 

•  Labyrinthodonts.  f  Ichthyosaur. 


152  The   World's  Foundations. 

whale,  very  big  eyes  and  powerful  teeth,  sometimes 
as  many  as  two  hundred  in  number.  The  remains 
of  fishes  and  reptiles  are  found  inside  the  skeletons. 
Another,  somewhat  similar,  had  an  enormously  long 
neck,  with  a  small  head  at  the  end  of  it,  teeth  like 
those  of  a  crocodile,  and  large  paddles.  The  skele- 
ton of  this  creature,*  too,  has  been  found  in  Europe 
up  to  thirty  or  forty  feet  in  length. 

Many,  huge  swimming-lizards  lived  in  the  ocean, 
and  to  them  has  been  given  the  name  of  Sea-Sauri- 
ans.  Another  inhabitant  of  the  ocean  was  a  long 
snake-like  reptile, t  covered  with  bony  plates,  and 
having  small  paddles.  Several  fossil  sea-snakes  of 
this  description  have  been  discovered  in  American 
rocks,  once  overflowed  by  the  sea,  and  the  largest 
of  them  was  nearly  eighty  feet  long. 

Besides  these  and  other  great  water-animals, 
there  were  crocodiles  in  rivers  and  on  land,  more 
like  crocodiles  of  the  present,  but  far  surpassing 
them  in  size.  A  certain  American  specimen  is  said 
to  have  been  at  least  fifty  feet  long,  and  to  have 
stood  ten  feet  high,  a  monster  hardly  outdone,  one 
would  imagine,  by  any  other  monster  of  even  that 
extraordinary  age. 

*  Plesiosaur.  f  Mosasaur. 


The  Age  of  Reptiles.  153 

The  fossil  bones  of  another  singular  creature* 
have  been  repeatedly  found,  and  its  foot-marks 
are  seen  by  hundreds.  This  animal  is  described 
as  having  been  "crocodile-like"  and  also  "bird- 
like."  Sometimes  it  was  thirty  or  forty  feet  in 
length.  It  had  four  legs,  but  the  hind-legs  were 
much  stouter  and  stronger  than  the  fore-legs.  It 
seems  often  to  have  reared  itself  up,  kangaroo-like, 
and  walked  on  the  hind-legs  alone — truly  a  fearful 
sight  to  look  upon.  The  fore-feet  had  four  toes, 
but  the  hind-feet  only  three;  so  at  first  when  these 
hind-foot  tracks  were  found  alone  they  were  taken 
for  those  of  a  huge  ostrich-like  bird;  and,  indeed, 
when  the  skeleton  was  first  found,  the  bones  also 
were  supposed  to  belong  to  a  bird,  from  their  hol- 
low make.  Some  think  that  though  a  reptile  it 
may  have  been  warm-blooded.  This  gigantic 
ostrich  -  kangaroo  -  lizard  —  how  else  describe  it  ? 
—  inhabited  both  Continents,  including  the  is- 
land of  Britain,  but  it  perhaps  abounded  most  in 
America. 

In  addition  to  the  wingless  bird-reptiles,  we  learn 
from  the  rocks  and  their  buried  fossils  of  Flying 
Saurians,t  or  Dragons  as  they  may  truly  be  called. 

•  Dinosaur.  f  Pterodactyls  or  Pterosaurs. 


154  The  World's  Foundations. 

The  fossil  remains  of  one  show  it  to  have  been 
three  feet  across  the  outspread  wings,  having  a 
body  one  foot  long,  with  hollow  bones  like  those 
of  a  bird,  skin,  claws,  and  teeth  like  those  of  a 
reptile,  and  wings  like  those  of  a  bat.  This  par- 
ticular animal  was,  however,  but  a  small  specimen. 
Remains  of  such  dragon-like  creatures  have  been 
discovered  in  Europe  measuring  sixteen  feet,  and 
in  America  measuring  twenty  to  twenty-five  feet, 
from  tip  to  tip  of  the  outstretched  wings. 

An  American  turtle  of  those  same  days  was 
no  less  than  fifteen  feet  broad,  between  the  tips 
of  the  flippers.  Yet  the  naturalist  who  examined 
the  fossil  saw  signs  of  its  having  been  young  at 
the  time  of  its  death.  What  must  the  full-grown 
turtle  have  been,  if  this  were  indeed,  only  a  gigan- 
tic infant  of  its  kind  ? 

Thus  in  Secondary  times  the  Reptiles  had  chief 
possession  of  all  three  elements.  They  were  the 
largest  and  the  most  powerful,  alike  on  land,  in 
water,  and  in  air. 

In  the  Connecticut  Valley  of  the  United  States, 
on  some  sandstone  rocks  belonging  to  this  period, 
tracks  of  animals  are  found  by  thousands,  footprints 
of  lizards  big  and  little,  footprints  of  reptiles,  birds 
and  other  creatures,  in  different  places,  through 


The  Age  of  Reptiles.  155 

some  eighty  miles  of  country,  and  repeated  down- 
wards through  some  eighty  feet  of  strata.  This 
tells  of  a  long  period,  during  which  the  animals 
lived  and  the  rocks  were  built.  Probably  it  was 
a  low  level  of  country,  sometimes  consisting  of  dry 
mud,  sometimes  covered  with  shallow  water. 

Such  footprints  are  also  found  in  Europe,  though 
in  smaller  numbers. 

The  Middle-Animal  Period  is  commonly  divided 
into  three  lesser  Ages. 

In  the  earlier  rocks  there  is  a  great  deal  of  sand- 
stone and  limestone,  and  also  there  are  a  few  coal- 
strata. 

The  Great  Coal  Age  was  over,  but  coal  prepara- 
tion was  not  entirely  at  an  end,  if  indeed  it  ever 
has  ended,  from  that  time  to  this.  Only  it  was 
no  longer  the  leading  fact  in  the  history  of  earth. 
The  large  cellars  of  the  house,  if  we  may  so  say, 
were  nearly  full,  although  from  time  to  time  an- 
other cart-load  was  still  added  to  the  store. 

About  the  middle  part  of  the  Secondary  Period, 
there  seems  to  have  been  coral-reef-building  in  or 
rather  over  England,  showing  a  warm  sea. 

In  addition  to  the  abounding  reptile-life  of  those 
days,  there  were  plenty  of  sea- creatures  and  plenty 


156  The  World's  Foundations. 

of  fishes.  The  fishes  in  general  were  of  a  higher 
grade  than  most  of  those  in  Primary  Days. 

The  rounded  wheel-like  fossil  of  the  Ammonite 
is  perhaps  better  known  than  any  other  kind  of 
fossil.  It  was  in  this  Middle  Period  that  the  Am- 
monite flourished,  much  as  the  Trilobite  had  flour- 
ished in  earlier  times. 

All  three-toed  fossil  footprints  were  at  first  taken 
for  those  of  birds.  It  is  now  believed  that  many 
belonged  to  reptiles.  Still  we  have  full  proof  that 
birds  did  live  in  those  days,  for  their  stony  remains 
have  been  discovered. 

At  a  certain  place  in  Bavaria,  for  instance,  a 
great  many  fossils  were  found,  beldnging  to  the 
Secondary  Period.  Among  flying  reptiles,  tortoises, 
fishes,  insects,  and  others,  appeared  one  very  per- 
fect bird-skeleton.  So  well  had  it  been  preserved, 
that  some  of  the  feathers  were  there  with  the 
bones. 

We  thus  have  at  last  all  the  lower  classes  of  the 
highest  sub-kingdom.  There  are  Fishes,  Reptiles, 
and  Birds.  Step  by  step  we  have  followed  upward 
the  order  of  Creation,  as  it  seems  to  have  taken 
place.  Only  Mammals  remain  wanting. 

And  wonderful  to  say,  though  the  Age  of  Mam- 
mals was  yet  to  come,  the  first  mammals  actually 


The  Age  of  Reptiles.  1 57 

lived  in  the  Age  of  Reptiles.  Both  in  Europe  and 
in  America  fossil  -  remains  have  been  repeatedly 
found  of  a  small  insect-eating  quadruped  of  this 
class.  It  is  believed  to  have  been  an  animal 
carrying  its  young  in  a  pouch,  just  as  the  kangaroo 
does.  However  this  may  have  been,  the  fact  that 
it  belonged  to  the  highest  class  of  MAMMALS  seems 
clear. 

The  words  "  Mammal  "  and  "  Quadruped  "  have 
not  exactly  the  same  meaning.  Every  quadruped 
or  four-footed  beast  is  not  a  mammal,  and  every 
mammal  is  not  a  quadruped.  Crocodiles  have  four 
feet,  but  they  are  not  mammals.  Whales  and  seals 
and  human  beings  have  not  four  feet,  yet  they  are 
included  in  the  Mammal  Class. 

Here  again,  as  in  the  case  of  Fishes,  we  have  the 
sudden  appearance  of  a  perfect  animal,  higher  in 
rank  than  any  earlier  created,  in  the  great  Period 
just  before  that  in  which  its  class  becomes  the  chief 
class  of  all. 

But  though  the  little  Quadruped  was  of  highest 
rank  among  beasts,  its  weakness  and  smallness  were 
remarkable,  in  contrast  with  the  gigantic  strength 
and  size  of  its  reptile  companions. 

Plants  did  not  vary  greatly  through  the  greater 
part  of  the  Middle-Life  Period  from  those  of  ear- 


158  The  World's  Foundations. 

Her  days.  There  were  ferns  and  horse-tails  and 
pines  still,  with  the  addition  of  a  kind  of  cypress. 
No  true  grasses,  or  mosses,  or  superior  plants  have 
yet  been  discovered.  We  shall,  however,  find  a 
marked  and  sudden  change  towards  the  close  of 
the  Period. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE  AGE  OF  CHALK. 

"The  Lord  which  .  .  .  layeth  the  foundation  of  the  earth."— 
ZECH.  xii.  i. 

THE  third  and  closing  division  of  the  Middle- 
Animal  Period  is  commonly  known  as  the  Chalk 
Age.  The  Latin  for  chalk  is  "creta,"  and  these 
rocks  are  called  "Cretaceous,"  because  a  large  por- 
tion of  them  consist  of  chalk. 

This  was  the  great  Chalk-making  Age  in  the 
world's  history,  and  the  amount  formed  in  that  one 
age  was  something  enormous.  The  white  cliffs 
running  along  the  southern  coasts  of  England  are  a 
very  small  part  of  the  whole  chalk  formation.  It 
extends  from  the  north  of  Ireland  to  the  Crimea,  a 
distance  in  one  direction  of  eleven  hundred  and 
forty  miles,  and  from  the  south  of  Sweden  to  the 
south  of  France,  a  distance  in  another  direction  of 


1 6O  The   World's  Foundations. 

eight  hundred  and  forty  miles;  while  in  places  it  is 
hundreds  of  feet  thick. 

When  we  remember  that  the  whole  of  this  vast 
mass  is  made  up  of  tiny  white  shells,  each  one 
formerly  the  home  of  a  minute  living  animal,  the 
amount  is  amazing. 

It  is  rather  a  sudden  change  to  turn  from  gigantic 
crocodiles  and  winged  monsters  to  these  smallest  of 
creatures — though  we  have  not  really  done  with 
the  monster  reptiles  yet,  since  they  lived  and  flour- 
ished all  through  the  Chalk  Age.  But  undoubt- 
edly the  great  Fact  in  that  Age  was,  as  the  name 
implies,  not  the  existence  of  huge  reptiles  with 
paddles  or  wings,  but  the  life  and  death  of  count- 
less millions  of  almost  invisible  specks  of  life. 

It  is  remarkable  to  find  this  backward  step,  if  we 
may  so  term  it,  in  the  stately  onward  march  of 
events.  Hitherto  we  have  had  to  follow  a  regular 
stepping  upward,  a  progression  stage  by  stage  from 
lower  to  higher  forms,  not  merely  in  the  order  of 
actual  creation,  but  in  the  order  of  the  principal  or 
dominant  kinds  of  life  upon  earth. 

First,  Boneless  Lower  Animals;  then  Fishes;  then 
Amphibians;  then  Reptiles.  Next  would  come 
Mammals;  but  before  the  Age  of  Mammals,  and 
breaking  in,  as  it  were,  upon  the  Age  of  Reptiles, 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  161 

we  have  the  Age  of  Chalk — in  other  words,  a  later 
Age  of  lower  animals.  Enormous  past  imagination 
must  have  been  the  numbers  of  these  tiny  creatures, 
swarming  in  the  ocean,  and  doing  their  work, — not 
much  work  either,  since  each  one  had  only  to  live 
and  then  to  die,  when  the  shell  sank  to  the  bottom 
amid  myriads  of  others,  to  become  part  of  the 
uppermost  layer  forming  there.  But  who  shall 
venture  to  say  that  the  mighty  brutes  of  land  and 
sea  were  playing  a  more  important  part  in  earth's 
history  than  these  small  animalcules  ? 

Although  the  Chalk  formation  reaches  so  many 
hundreds  of  miles,  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
through  Europe,  it  is  not  always  visible.  Here  it 
rises  to  the  surface  of  the  ground,  showing  as  high 
white  cliffs;  there  it  sinks  below  later-built  rocks, 
and  is  hidden  from  sight;  again  it  rises  and  becomes 
visible,  and  then  again  it  disappears. 

For  a  long  while  there  was  uncertainty  as  to  the 
exact  manner  in  which  chalk  had  been  made.  A 
little  of  the  fine  white  dust  of  chalk,  rubbed  off  and 
put  under  a  powerful  microscope,  was  found  to  -be 
chiefly  composed  of  tiny  shells,  some  whole,  some 
broken.  The  greater  number  of  these  were  rhizo- 
pod- shells.*  It  was  supposed  that  chalk  was 

*  Foraminifers. 


1 62  The  World's  Foundations. 

formed  in  deep  water,  of  shells  quietly  dropping 
and  collecting;  not,  like  the  harder  kinds  of  lime- 
stone, made  in  shallow  water,  of  shells  ground  up 
into  fine  dust  by  the  waves.  Chalk  is  a  kind  of 
limestone,  but  it  is  of  a  soft  loose  make,  not  hard 
and  compact. 

This  guess  or  theory  was  proved  to  be  true,  when 
deep  soundings  were  made  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
before  the  Electric  Cable  was  laid  down  between 
Ireland  and  Newfoundland.  Mud,  dredged  up  from 
the  bottom,  at  a  depth  of  two  miles,  was  found  to 
be  chiefly  composed  of  tiny  shells,  bound  together 
by  a  kind  of  living  gelatine,  and  thus  becoming 
gradually  real  chalk.  Nineteen-twentieths  of  them 
were  rhizopod-shells. 

But  there  is  another  puzzle  about  these  white 
chalk  cliffs.  If  you  examine  them  carefully,  you 
will  often  see,  not  far  from  the  top,  a  line  of  flints, 
sometimes  placed  close  together,  sometimes  scat- 
tered loosely  along  at  the  same  level.  Then  there 
comes  a  band  of  chalk,  and  then  again,  perhaps, 
another  layer  of  flints,  and  this  may  be  several 
times  repeated.  And  if  you  were  to  break  open 
a  great  many  of  these  flints,  you  would  find 
some  of  them  to  contain  the  fossils  of  living 
creatures. 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  163 

But  how  could  living  animals  by  any  possibility 
have  crept  inside  the  hard  flints  ? 

The  question  comes  to  this  —  How  are  flints 
formed?  What  are  flints  made  of?  Did  the  ani- 
mals get  into  the  flints  while  alive,  or  did  the  flints 
form  round  the  animals  after  they  were  dead  ?  The 
latter  certainly  seems  the  more  likely  of  the  two. 

The  mere  presence  of  these  layers  in  the  cliffs 
is  of  itself  a  perplexing  matter.  There  seems  no 
connection  between  the  flint  of  the  layers  and  the 
lime  of  which  the  chalk  cliffs  are  made. 

We  may  not  yet  speak  positively  on  the  subject, 
but  the  deep  soundings  and  dredgings  of  the  At- 
lantic have  furnished  a  possible  clue  to  this  riddle 
also. 

The  dredged-up  mud  was  found,  as  just  stated, 
to  consist  chiefly  of  the  shells  of  rhizopods — chiefly, 
but  not  entirely.  For  while  in  certain  parts  the 
Atlantic  bottom  seemed  to  be  quite  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  rhizopods,  in  other  parts  the  rhiz- 
opods were  nearly  absent,  and  the  tiny  vegetable 
diatoms*  had  the  field  to  themselves. 

The  diatoms,  although  believed  to  be  plants, 
have  their  minute  shells,  just  as  the  rhizopods 
have.  But  while  the  rhizopods'  shells  are  made  of 
*  See  p.  47. 


lt>4  The   World's  Foundations. 

lime,  the  diatoms'  shells  are  made  of  flint.  The 
following  has  been  offered  as  a  possible  explana- 
tion. At  the  bottom  of  a  tolerably  deep  sea,  where 
rhizopods  were  living  and  dying  in  countless  my- 
riads, multitudes  of  their  shells  would  be  ever 
sinking  and  helping  to  build  up  a  floor  of  white 
chalk.  Animals  of  larger  size  would  also  live  and 
die  in  the  waters,  and  many  of  their  stony  remains 
are  found  in  the  chalk  layers.  Then  there  would 
come  a  change — how  brought  about  we  do  not 
know — and  where  the  rhizopods  had  abounded  the 
diatoms  would  next  for  a  while  abound,  their  flinty 
shells  taking  a  turn  at  sea-bottom  building.  They 
would  not  flourish  in  sufficient  quantities  to  make 
deep  strata,  like  the  rhizopods,  but  as  they  sank 
to  the  ocean-floor,  they  would  collect  round  shells 
or  sponges  lying  there,  or  gather  into  small  masses, 
and  thus  would  the  hard  flints  be  formed,  later  to 
be  covered  by  fresh  layers  of  chalk.  The  tendency 
to  collect  round  some  small  hard  substance,  and 
to  become  united  to  it,  has  often  been  observed, 
alike  in  minute  shells  and  in  fine  sand  or  earth. 

There  is,  however,  a  difficulty  in  admitting  this 
explanation  as  very  probable  or  conclusive,  for  the 
structure  of  flint,  examined  under  a  microscope,  does 
not  show  a  collection  of  flinty  shells,  but  a  solution 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  105 

of  flint — that  is,  flint  which  has  been  dissolved, — 
often  containing  the  tiny  spores  of  non-flowering 
plants. 

If  chalk  and  flint  are  now  being  formed  below 
the  Atlantic,  a  question  may  present  itself  to 
some  minds, — Are  we  then  still  in  the  Chalk 
Age? 

No,  certainly  not.  The  chalk  age  ended  long 
ago.  We  have  already  seen  that  Coal-making 
took  place  in  the  Secondary  Period,  yet  that  was 
not  the  age  of  Coal.  Each  separate  Age  had  its 
great  leading  Facts;  its  principal  Rock-formations; 
its  chief  kinds  of  Animal  life;  but  other  rock-build- 
ing went  on,  and  other  kinds  of  animals  lived  and 
flourished,  alongside  with  them,  though  in  a  lesser 
degree;  and  so  it  is  now. 

Rhizopod-shells  are  thus  the  chief  material  of 
which  chalk  is  composed.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  a  cubic  inch  of  chalk  contains  often  about 
one  million  shells,  yet  even  they  are  much  larger 
than  the  diatom-shells.  What  must  be  the  count- 
less multitudes  in  the  thousands  of  miles  of  the  vast 
Chalk-formation  ! 

How  long  a  time  was  occupied  by  the  building 
up  of  the  whole,  it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to 
calculate.  Such  calculations  sink  into  mere  loose 


1 66  The   World's  Foundations. 

guesses,  built  upon  an  "if"  which  is  built  upon 
nothing.  We  do  not  know  with  any  certainty  how 
quickly  chalk  may  in  the  present  be  formed;  and 
if  we  did,  that  would  not  help  us  with  regard  to 
the  past.  In  the  great  Chalk  Age  the  ocean  prob- 
ably abounded  with  rhizopods  to  an  amount  never 
equalled  at  any  other  time;  and  the  work  of  build- 
ing up  would  have  been  in  that  case  much  more 
rapid  than  it  seems  to  be  now. 

In  America,  although  there  is  the  so-called  Chalk- 
formation,  it  consists  chiefly  of  green-sand,  clay, 
limestone,  and  other  rocks,  but  not  of  pure  white 
chalk.  In  Europe,  although  sandstone  and  lime- 
stone are  found,  chalk  is  the  principal  material. 

The  geography  of  the  Age  has  points  of  in- 
terest. The  Chalk  of  Europe  shows  that  broad 
tracts  of  land  still  lay  deep  under  water — deeper 
perhaps  than  in  some  previous  times.  Europe 
could  indeed  have  been  scarcely  a  continent 
then,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  but  was 
rather  an  immense  collection  of  islands,  with  its 
largest  amount  of  dry  land  to  the  north.  The 
Alps  and  the  Pyrenees  in  Europe,  the  Himalayas 
in  India,  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Andes  in 
America,  were  still  all  beneath  the  ocean  or  only 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  167 

raised  a  little  way  out  of  it,  possibly  the  higher 
peaks  showing,  but  no  more.  A  great  part  of  the 
south  of  England  and  the  north  of  France  had  salt 
water  rolling  over  them,  filled  with  millions  upon 
millions  of  rhizopods. 

With  regard  to  Vegetable-life  a  change  comes 
with  the  Chalk  Age,  and  trees  and  plants  of  modern 
days  burst  upon  us  in  full-blown  perfection,  with 
really  startling  suddenness.  Up  to  that  date  no 
remains  have  been  discovered  of  any  plants  be- 
longing to  the  higher  classes,  unless,  perhaps,  one 
or  two  doubtful  specimens.  Now,  however,  the 
monotonous  repetition  of  only  flowerless  kinds  sud- 
denly ceases. 

For  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  rock-layers  belonging 
to  nearly  the  close  of  the  Chalk  Age,  a  large  quan- 
tity of  plant-remains  have  been  found.  Among 
them  are  as  usual  the  fossils  of  ferns  and  pines. 
But  in  addition  there  are  fossils  of  the  Oak,  the 
Beech,  the  Sycamore,  the  Poplar,  the  Willow,  the 
Walnut,  the  Myrtle,  the  Fig,  the  Maple,  the  Mag- 
nolia, the  Holly,  the  Hickory,  the  Banksia,  and 
others.  Also  the  first  fossil  palm-leaves  have  been 
met  with  on  Vancouver's  Island,  in  rocks  believed 
to  belong  to  the  same  period. 


1 68  The  World's  Foundations. 

With  regard  to  Animal-life,  the  great  reptiles 
continued  to  abound,  side  by  side  with  the  tiny 
rhizopods.  Snake-reptiles  and  swimming  saurians 
in  the  ocean,  crocodiles  of  old  and  new  kinds  in  the 
rivers,  flesh-eating  and  plant-eating  bird-reptiles  on 
the  land,  flying  reptiles  in  the  air, — all  these  lived 
still,  as  through  earlier  Secondary  ages,  but  they 
were  nearing  their  destruction.  For  a  while  they 
flourished  side  by  side  with  the  fig,  and  the  myrtle, 
and  the  magnolia.  Then,  though  the  frail  plants 
lived  on,  the  mighty  beasts  came  to  their  end. 

Birds  of  large  size  seem  to  have  existed  in  con- 
siderable numbers.  Several  fossil  bird-skeletons 
have  been  found  in  America;  one  of  a  diver,  five  feet 
and  a  half  high. 

Among  the  living  creatures  which  ranged  the 
ocean,  none  is  more  interesting  than  the  beautiful 
spiral  ammonite.  The  first  ammonites,  so  far  as 
we  know,  were  in  the  Age  of  Fishes,  but  they  were 
then  rare.  It  was  not  until  the  Secondary  Period 
that  they  abounded.  One  fossil  ammonite,  found  in 
English  rocks,  is  no  less  than  a  yard  in  diameter; 
and  from  this  the  fossils  range  downwards  to  tiny 
specimens  an  inch  or  less  across.  Sometimes  they 
are  found  uncoiled,  but  more  commonly  coiled. 

The  ammonite,  like  the  trilobite  of  earlier  times, 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  169 

has  died  completely  out  of  existence,  and  is  no 
longer  to  be  seen  alive.  A  few  specimens  lingered 
on  after  the  Secondary  Period,  but  the  Age  of  Am- 
monites ended  with  the  Age  of  Chalk. 

At  the  close  of  the  Chalk  Age,  which  is  also  the 
close  of  the  Secondary  Period,  a  great  and  remark- 
able destruction  of  life  seems  to  have  taken  place. 

Whether  this  destruction  was  sudden  or  gradual 
is  a  question  about  which  opinions  differ — the  simple 
fact  being  that  nobody  knows. 

Some  believe  that  thousands  of  animals  were 
swept  out  of  existence  in  a  short  space  of  time; 
since  they  are  found  to  have  lived  up  to  the  close 
of  the  Chalk  Age,  and  then — they  are  no  more  seen. 

Others  suggest  that  the  seemingly  abrupt  change 
is  caused  only  by  intermediate  rock-layers  having 
been  washed  away.  They  argue  that  animals 
probably  lived  and  died  through  long  ages  between 
— the  record  of  which  has  been  lost— one  kind  after 
another  slowly  disappearing  and  giving  place  to 
new  kinds. 

All  we  actually  know  is  that  such  a  break 
— abrupt  in  appearance,  at  all  events — does  ex- 
ist. We  have  the  Chalk  Rocks,  the  last  of  the 
Middle-Life  Period,  full  of  animals  of  Secondary 


170  The   World's  Foundations. 

times.  Immediately  above  them  we  have  the  more 
modern  rocks,  full  of  animals  of  "New-Life"  days, 
all  entirely  different  from  animals  of  Middle-Life 
days. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  possible  rocks  between  the 
two,  belonging  to  a  possible  intervening  Age,  filled 
with  possible  animals,  partly  like  those  in  the  up- 
permost of  the  Middle-Period  Rocks,  and  partly 
like  those  in  the  lowermost  of  the  New-Period 
Rocks,  thus  forming  a  link  to  unite  the  two,  or  a 
bridge  to  span  the  chasm.  But  imaginations  are 
not  facts  to  build  upon,  and  as  yet  such  half-way 
rocks  have  not  come  to  light. 

It  is  true,  discovery  has  been  made  of  certain  lay- 
ers which  seem  to  date  later  than  the  Secondary 
Chalk,  and  earlier  than  the  Third-Period  sands  and 
clays.  Each  of  these,  however,  was  found  to  con- 
tain distinctly  either  the  animals  of  Middle-time,  or 
the  animals  of  New-time,  and  not  the  animals  of  a 
stage  lying  between  the  two.  So  the  layers  were 
clearly  only  a  part  either  of  Middle-Life  or  of  New- 
Life  Rocks,  and  the  position  of  affairs  remains  just 
the  same  as  before.  The  chasm  stands  as  wide  as 
ever.  We  still  pass  at  a  leap  from  one  Period  to 
the  next. 

In   all    Europe,   in   all    Asia,    and   in   nearly  all 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  171 

America,  not  one  single  kind  of  living  creatures 
in  Third-Period  Days  has  been  found  precisely  like 
one  single  kind  in  preceding  Secondary  Days.  In 
the  Rocky  Mountains  only,  some  specimens  may 
be  the  same,  though  even  this  is  doubtful. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  absolutely  impossible  that 
throughout  this  vast  extent  of  country  great  masses 
of  rock,  lying  between  the  two  Periods,  may  have 
been  washed  away — a  whole  chapter,  as  it  were, 
neatly  torn  out  of  the  book.  But  though  not  im- 
possible, it  would  certainly  be  very  extraordinary. 
Such  a  tremendous  and  wholesale  destruction  of 
strata,  over  Europe,  Asia,  and  America,  at  one  par- 
ticular point  of  time  in  geological  history,  would  be 
at  least  as  remarkable,  in  whatever  manner  it  came 
about,  as  the  most  wholesale  and  sudden  destruc- 
tion of  Animal-life  through  the  world  at  that  same 
point  of  time. 

Which  of  these  wonderful  events,  however,  really 
took  place  we  cannot  say.  We  only  see  the  gap — 
the  break — the  change.  We  only  see  that  animal- 
life  did  so  pass  through  a  transition — some  kinds 
dying  quite  out — some  kinds  remaining  on,  the 
same  yet  not  quite  the  same;  and  with  them  the 
creation  of  entirely  new  kinds,  higher  in  the  scale 
than  any  before. 


172  The   World's  Foundations. 

Signs  are  sometimes  observed  in  the  chalk  of 
possible  ice-action.  Certain  big  stones  and  boul- 
ders, clustered  here  and  there  amid  chalk-layers, 
are  exceedingly  perplexing,  except  under  the  sup- 
position that  they  were  dropped  upon  the  half- 
formed  chalk  by  icebergs  floating  as  far  south  as 
English  seas. 

This,  if  true,  seems  to  tell  of  a  possible  change 
of  climate  in  the  earth,  towards  or  at  the  close  of 
Secondary  days.  It  may  be  that  such  a  change, 
from  long-continued  mildness  to  cold,  was  the 
cause  of  the  wide-spread  destruction  of  life. 

Here  again  the  question  arises  whether  such  a 
change  of  climate  would  have  been  sudden  or  grad- 
ual, and  here  again  we  cannot  reply  with  any  cer- 
tainty. A  gradual  change  would  mean  only  a 
gradual  passing  away  of  one  kind  after  another. 
A  sudden  change  would  mean  sudden  and  wide- 
spread death.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  signs  of 
such  a  death,  yet  of  a  death  which  has  not  injured 
the  bones,  has  been  noted  by  geologists  in  the  rep- 
tiles of  those  days;  just  as  it  was  noted  in  the  fishes 
of  earlier  times. 

The  upheaving  of  mountain-ranges,  the  rising  or 
sinking  of  the  ocean-bottom  here  or  there,  might 
have  entirely  changed  the  directions  of  warm  or  cold 


The  Age  of  Chalk.  173 

ocean-currents,  and  might  thus  at  any  time  have 
brought  about  a  complete  alteration  of  climate  in 
any  land  or  continent  in  the  world.  Such  risings 
or  sinkings  again  might  be  either  sudden  or  slow. 
But  beyond  broad  statements  of  what  "  might  have 
been,"  particular  guesses  and  closely  worked-out 
theories  are  worth  little. 

This  chapter  can  scarcely  be  better  ended  than 
with  the  following  beautiful  lines,  descriptive  of  the 
Middle-Life  Period. 

"The  Nautilus  and  the  Ammonite 

Were  launched  in  storm  and  strife; 
Each  sent  to  float,  in  its  tiny  boat, 
On  the  wide  wild  sea  of  life. 

"And  each  could  swim  on  the  ocean's  brim, 

And  anon  its  sails  could  furl; 
And  sink  to  sleep  in  the  great  sea  deep, 
In  a  palace  all  of  pearl. 

"And  theirs  was  a  bliss  more  fair  than  this 

That  we  feel  in  our  colder  time, 
For  they  were  rife  in  a  tropic  life, 
In  a  brighter  happier  clime. 

"  They  swam  'mid  isles  whose  summer  smiles 

No  wintry  winds  annoy; 

Whose  groves  were  palm*(?)  whose  air  was  balm, 
Where  life  was  only  joy. 

•  It  was  once  believed  that  palms  existed  much  earlier  than  is  now  supposed. 


1/4  The   World's  Foundations. 

"They  roamed  all  day  through  creek  and  bay, 

And  traversed  the  ocean  deep; 
And  at  night  they  sank  on  a  coral  bank. 
In  its  fairy  bowers  to  sleep. 

"  And  the  monsters  vast  of  ages  past, 
They  beheld  in  their  ocean  caves; 
And  saw  them  ride  in  their  power  and  pride, 
And  sink  in  their  billowy  graves. 

"Thus  hand  in  hand,  from  strand  to  strand 

They  sailed  in  mirth  and  glee, 
Those  fairy  shells  with  their  crystal  cells, 
Twin  creatures  of  the  sea.  .     . 

"But  they  came  at  last  to  a  sea  long  past, 

And  as  they  reached  its  shore, 
The  Almighty's  breath  spake  out  in  death, 
And  the  Ammonite  lived  no  more. 

"  And  the  Nautilus  now,  in  its  shelly  prow, 

As  o'er  the  deep  it  strays, 
Still  seems  to  seek  in  bay  and  creek 
Its  companion  of  other  days. 

"And  thus  do  we,  in  life's  stormy  sea, 

As  we  roam  from  shore  to  shore, 
While  tempest-tost,  seek  the  loved — the  lost — 
But  find  them  on  earth  no  more." 

G.  F.  RICHARDSON. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE  AGE  OF  MAMMALS. 

"Which  by  His  strength  setteth  fast  the  mountains,  being  girded  with 
power." — PSA.  Ixv.  6. 

WE  have  now  reached  the  last  great  division  of 
Geological  History. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  whole  of  this 
strange  Fossil-History,  written  in  the  rocks,  is  di- 
vided into  three  portions. 

Sometimes  the  three  are  described  as  Primary, 
Secondary,  and  Tertiary;  the  meaning  of  the  terms 
being  simply,  First,  Second,  and  Third. 

Sometimes  they  are  described  in  words  which 
when  translated,  mean,  Ancient-Life  Period,  Mid- 
dle-Life Period,  and  New-Life  Period. 

Again,  they  may  be  described  as  the  Period  of 
Lower  Animals  and  Fishes,  the  Period  of  Reptiles, 
and  the  Period  of  Mammals. 

Or,  once  more,  we  might  term  them  the  Ancient 


176  The   World's  Foundations. 

History,  the  Mediaeval  History,  and  the  Modern 
History,  of  Geology. 

It  is  upon  the  last  of  these  three  that  we  are  now 
entering. 

Although  the  Tertiary  or  Third  Period  lies  nearer 
to  our  own  days  than  any  before,  yet  the  animals 
which  lived  throughout  the  greater  part  of  it  were 
very  different  from  those  which  live  now.  Not  one 
single  fish,  or  reptile,  or  bird,  or  quadruped,  known 
to  have  existed  then,  was  exactly  the  same  as  any 
one  fish,  reptile,  bird,  or  quadruped,  existing  now. 

But  this  was  not  quite  the  case  with  sea-shells, 
and  fresh-water  shells.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Tertiary  Period,  indeed,  very  few  even  of  these  were 
the  same  as  any  seen  now;  still  there  were  a  few, 
and  the  number  went  on  gradually  increasing.  By 
the  close  of  the  Tertiary,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
Post-Tertiary  or  After-Tertiary,  about  ninety-five 
in  every  hundred  shells  were  exactly  the  same  as 
those  of  the  present  time. 

So  the  first  part  of  this  Third  Period  is  called  the 
"  Dawn  of  Recent,"  and  the  middle  part  has  a  name 
which  means  that  "Less"  than  half  of  the  shells 
were  "recent,"  and  the  latter  part  has  a  name 
which  means  that  "More"  than  half  of  the  shells 
were  "recent." 


1.  Footprints  of  a  Bird. 
4.  Trilobite. 


W.  Fonndation.- 


2.  Mndcrncks. 
5.  Ripplemarki- 


p.  176. 


The  Age  of  Mammals.  177 

The  rocks  of  this  Period  in  Europe  and  in  Amer- 
ica bear  a  general  likeness  one  to  another.  They 
lie  close  over  the  Chalk  Formation,  with  the  marked 
break  between  the  two,  as  to  kinds  of  animal  re- 
mains, described  in  the  last  chapter. 

An  exception  is  found  to  this  widespread  "break" 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  where  the  change  from 
Secondary  rocks  to  those  above  is  gradual. 

Fossils  abound  in  the  Third-Period  rocks,  though 
more  in  some  parts  than  in  others.  There  are  lay- 
ers of  earth  entirely  made  up  of  animalcule-remains, 
so  small  as  to  look  like  fine  dust  to  the  naked  eye. 
Also  rocks,  to  a  vast  amount,  are  largely  composed 
of  a  kind  of  rhizopods,  not  tiny  in  size  like  those 
described  in  earlier  chapters,  but  flat,  coin-shaped, 
and  about  as  large  as  a  threepenny  or  sixpenny 
piece.  They  are  called  Nummulites,  from  two 
words,  one  Latin  and  the  other  Greek,  meaning 
"coin"  and  "stone." 

The  wide  reaches  of  country  over  which  num- 
mulites  are  found,  show  that  these  small  creatures 
must  have  lived  in  multitudes  past  imagination. 
The  Day  of  Rhizopods,  which  came  in  during  the 
Reptile  Age,  seems  to  have  continued  through  part 
of  the  Mammal  Period. 

Some  limestones  consist  almost  wholly  of  num- 


178  The  World's  Foundations. 

mulites.  Rocks  containing  these  coin-shaped  fossils 
extend  throughout  a  great  part  of  south  Europe, 
south  Asia,  and  north  Africa.  They  are  found  in  the 
Alps,  the  Pyrenees,  the  Apennines,  the  Carpathians, 
the  Himalayas,  also  in  Egypt,  in  Afghanistan,  in 
Persia,  in  Thibet,  in  Japan,  in  Java. 

Moreover,  though  the  animals  must  all  have  lived 
and  died  in  ocean-waters,  they  are  found  at  great 
heights  above  the  sea-level.  The  summit  of  the 
Dent  du  Midi,  for  instance,  over  ten  thousand  feet 
high,  is  formed  of  nummulite  rock. 

If  then,  as  is  believed,  all  the  rocks  holding  these 
particular  fossils,  were  formed  in  the  course  of  the 
New-Life  Period,  it  follows  that  the  Alps,  and  the 
Pyrenees,  and  parts  of  the  other  ranges,  just  men- 
tioned, were  not  mountains  at  all  until  after  the 
beginning  or  middle  of  that  Period.  And  this  is 
supposed  to  have  been  really  the  case.  The  kingly 
Mont  Blanc  and  Monte  Rosa  were  probably  buried 
under  ocean-waters,  and  not  uplifted  as  lofty  moun- 
tains until  towards  the  close  of  the  Third  Period. 

But  how  long  were  the  ages  which  may  have 
been  occupied,  first  by  the  building  of  the  coin-filled 
rock  layers,  and  then  by  the  grand  upheaval  of 
whole  mountain-ranges,  we  cannot  even  guess.  We 
do  not  know  in  the  least  how  quickly  the  former 


The  Age  of  Mammals.  179 

may  have  taken  place,  or  whether  the  latter  was  a 
gradual  or  a  rapid  work. 

It  should  be  understood  that  these  stone  coins 
and  other  sea-fossils  are  not  merely  found  scattered 
over  the  surfaces  of  great  heights,  but  are  buried 
deep  down  in  the  solid  rocks. 

The  climate  of  the  earth  in  Third-Period  Days 
seems  generally  to  have  been  mild,  much  milder 
than  now.  Tropical  plants  grew  on  European  earth, 
and  tropical  animals  wandered  through  European 
forests;  while  plants  which  now  flourish  in  temper- 
ate lands  then  flourished  within  the  Arctic  circle. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  a  change 
becomes  visible;  showing  a  gradual  increase  of 
cold  in  the  hitherto  warm  waters  and  soft  atmos- 
phere of  England  and  middle  Europe.  The  Third 
Period  seems  to  have  been  possibly  ushered  in  by  a 
cold  era;  and  it  seems  to  have  almost  certainly 
gone  out  in  a  cold  era.  But  the  chief  part  of  it,  not 
counting  the  beginning  or  the  ending,  appears  to 
have  been  warm. 

As  in  other  ages,  there  was  most  likely  much 
gradual  building  of  sediment  beds,  sandy  or  clayey, 
or  muddy,  in  Europe  and  America,  with  frequent  ris- 
ing and  sinking  of  land  in  different  parts.  The  con- 


180  The  World's  Foundations. 

tinents  would  by  this  time  have  had  their  general 
outlines  much  the  same  as  at  present,  though  broad 
reaches  which  are  now  dry  land  must  then  have 
lain  under  the  sea  for  at  least  a  part  of  the  Period. 

Rocks  of  this  Period  are  to  be  seen  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  London  and  Paris,  among  many  places. 
The  "London  Basin"  and  the  "Paris  Basin"  are 
terms  often  used;  the  "Basin"  being  in  fact  a  large 
hollow  in  rocks  of  the  Chalk  Age,  which  hollow  has 
been  filled  up  with  later-built  layers  of  Third-Period 
sand,  clay,  gravel  and  other  materials,  containing 
ample  fossil  remains.  The  "Paris  Basin"  is  about 
one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  long  and  ninety 
miles  broad. 

The  British  Isles  like  other  lands,  are  believed  to 
have  slowly  risen  and  sunk  alternately  through 
many  ages.  At  one  time  the  whole  was  probably 
part  of  the  Continent;  then  again  it  sank,  and 
became  a  mere  little  archipelago  of  small  islands; 
again  it  rose,  and  Ireland  was  separated  from  Eng- 
land, and  the  Dover  Straits  flowed  between  England 
and  France.  In  early  New-Life  ages  England  was 
probably  part  of  the  Continent,  since  all  the  great 
European  beasts  found  their  way  across  into  Brit- 
ain; but  the  final  separation  probably  took  place 
towards  the  close  of  the  Period. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

MORE   ABOUT   THE   AGE    OF   MAMMALS. 

"  Thou  sendest  forth  Thy  Spirit,  they  are  created;  and  Thou  renewest 
the  face  of  the  earth." — PSA.  civ.  30. 

SOME  few  signs  are  seen  in  early  Third-Period 
rocks,  which  may  point  to  the  existence  of  ice- 
bergs floating  southward,  but  the  general  evidence 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  Period  seems  to 
tell  of  a  mild  climate. 

Towards  the  close,  however,  a  marked  change 
becomes  visible.  Rough  "drift  "or  "  till"  polished 
stones,  scratched  rocks,  big  blocks  of  stone  carried 
far  from  their  places,  coarse  clay, — these  and  other 
tokens  found  in  the  upper  layers  speak  to  us  of  a 
colder  time  coming  on. 

Just  as  the  First  Period  was  the  Age  of  Lower 
Animals  and  Fishes;  as  the  Second  Period  was  the 


1 82  The   World's  Foundations. 

Age  of  Reptiles;  so  the  Third  Period  was  the  Age 
of  Mammals. 

Mammals  have  been  already  described  as  the 
very  highest  class  in  the  upper  division  of  the  Ani- 
mal Kingdom.  They  have  a  backbone  and  skele- 
ton; so  have  fishes.  They  breathe  air;  so  do  reptiles. 
They  are  warm-blooded;  so  are  birds.  They  suckle 
their  young;  and  so  do  not  any  other  living  crea- 
tures. This  is  the  mark  of  uppermost  rank.  The 
mammals,  or  the  animals  of  highest  rank,  were  the 
latest  created. 

The  Tertiary  or  Third  Period  is  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  ending  before  the  Post-Tertiary  or  After-Ter- 
tiary, and  sometimes  it  is  made  to  include  the 
Post-Tertiary.  In  the  former  case  it  is  the  Age 
of  Mammals,  because  mammals  first  flourished  dur- 
ing its  three  ages.  In  the  latter  case  it  is  still  more 
strongly  the  Age  of  Mammals,  for  in  the  Post- 
Tertiary  these  animals  reached  their  greatest  size 
and  power.  Moreover,  Man  was  created  in  the 
Post-Tertiary,  and  Man  is  a  Mammal. 

In  this  chapter,  however,  we  are  thinking  about 
the  Third  Period,  apart  from  the  After-Third  Period. 

During  the  earlier  part  of  the  Third  Period  am- 
monites, as  well  as  coin-like  nummulites,  lived  over 
the  submerged  Alpine  peaks — but  they  were  the  last 


More  about  the  Age  of  Mammals.  183 

of  their  kind.  Coral-polyps  too  worked  there,  show- 
ing a  warm  sea. 

The  fig-tree  and  the  cinnamon  grew  wild  in  the 
Isle  of  Wight;  and  palm-trees,  of  a  kind  now  seen 
in  Bengal,  grew  in  the  Island  of  Sheppey;  and  the 
cocoa-nut  and  the  custard-apple  grew  near  London. 

These  facts  are  known  by  the  fossil  leaves  and 
fruits  or  seeds  found  in  the  rocks  of  the  different 
places.  It  would  hardly  be  believed,  without  being 
seen,  how  perfect  and  delicate  is  the  way  in  which 
some  of  these  fossils  are  kept.  A  fossil  butterfly 
was  found  in  Croatia,  the  very  pattern  of  the  wing 
being  exactly  depicted  on  the  stone.  Thus  it  is 
that  botanists  can  tell  the  trees  or  plants  to 
which  fossil  leaves  and  stems  and  seeds  probably 
belonged. 

In  England  there  were  crocodiles,  also  sea-snakes 
up  to  twenty  feet  in  length,  besides  tortoises,  tur- 
tles and  other  animals.  A  bird  found  in  the  Lon- 
don clay  had  notches  in  its  bill,  to  which  some 
rather  imaginative  naturalist  gave  the  name  of 
"teeth." 

In  the  forests  of  France  there  were  parrots  and 
flamingoes,  cranes  and  adjntants,  pelicans  and 
secretary-birds — such  as  are  now  brought  from 
Africa  and  other  hot  countries  to  put  into  Zoo- 


184  The   World's  Foundations. 

logical  Gardens.     A  kind  of  ostrich  too  seems  to 
have  lived  there. 

In  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  where  the  break 
between  Second-Period  and  Third-Period  Rocks  is 
not  seen,  but  where  one  age  seems  to  have  glided 
gently  into  the  next,  the  marked  change  visible 
elsewhere  in  kinds  of  animal-life  does  not  exist. 
Chalk- Age  animals,  chiefly  reptiles  and  not  mam- 
mals, continue;  so  it  is  really  very  difficult  to  say 
where  the  rocks  of  the  Chalk-Age  end  and  the 
rocks  of  the  Recent-Life  Period  begin. 

But  in  other  parts  of  North  America  and  in 
Europe,  alongside  with  the  birds  and  the  few 
reptiles  above-mentioned,  mammals  flourished  in 
great  abundance.  Many  of  them  were  strange 
creatures,  utterly  unlike  any  that  live  now.  Oth- 
ers resembled  more  or  less  modern  quadrupeds, 
though  they  were  never  exactly  the  same. 

One  of  these  brutes,  the  remains  of  which  are 
often  found,  has  a  name  given  to  it  which  means 
"Ancient  Wild-beast."*  It  was  something  like 
the  modern  long-nosed  tapir;  the  larger  speci- 
mens being  as  large  as  a  horse,  and  the  smaller  as 
small  as  a  sheep.  There  were  many  different  kind? 
of  tapir-like  animals  in  Europe  then. 
»  Paleothere. 


More  about  the  Age  of  Mammals.  185 

Another  strange  creature*  was  rather  slender 
and  graceful  in  form,  and  about  the  size  of  a 
chamois. 

There  were  dogs,  weasels,  opossums,  and  numer- 
ous other  quadrupeds  in  Europe;  some  of  them 
known  to  us  by  their  skeletons,  and  some  only  by 
their  footprints.  So  numerous,  indeed,  are  the  kinds 
of  footprints,  that  we  may  learn  from  them  a  useful 
lesson,  as  to  the  variety  of  animals  which  may 
have  lived  in  any  age,  quite  unknown  to  us  by 
fossil  remains. 

A  large  whale-like  animal  t  seems  to  have  been 
abundant  in  America — that  is  to  say,  in  the  seas 
overflowing  what  is  now  American  land.  The 
backbone  is  from  fifty  to  seventy  feet  long.  In 
one  part  the  remains  of  no  less  than  forty  of 
these  ancient  whales  were  found  within  ten  miles 
of  one  another.  Whales  and  dolphins  are  mam- 
mals, not  fishes,  since  they  are  warm-blooded,  and 
breathe  air,  and  suckle  their  young. 

The  European  plants  and  trees  of  the  early  part 

of  this  Period  seem  to  have  been  generally  much 

the    same    in    character    as    Australian    trees    and 

plants   of  the   present   day;   but   later   on   in   the 

•  Xiphodon.  t  Zeuglodon. 


1 86  The  World's  Foundations. 

Period  they  appear  rather  to  have  resembled  the 
modern  growth  of  North  America. 

In  middle  Europe  palms  grew  plentifully  as  far 
north  as  50  degrees  North  Latitude.  There  palms 
ceased,  but  their  companions  are  found  in  much 
higher  latitudes. 

In  the  Valley  of  the  Rhine  there  were  oaks  and 
poplars,  maples  and  planes,  and  a  kind  of  North 
American  vine. 

In  North  Greenland,  now  a  region  of  perpetual 
ice  and  snow,  the  wellingtonia  flourished  side  by 
side  with  the  poplar  and  the  willow,  the  oak  and 
the  beech,  the  plane  and  the  walnut. 

In  Spitzbergen,  where  now  only  a  few  stunted 
shrubs  and  certain  lichens  find  subsistence,  the 
beech  and  the  poplar,  the  plane  and  the  lime,  the 
alder  and  the  hazel  grew. 

The  uplifting  of  the  Alpine  mountains  and  other 
great  ranges  is  believed  to  have  taken  place  some- 
where about  the  middle  of  the  Period. 

Remains  are  found  in  France  and  in  England  of 
huge  quadrupeds,  though  not  yet  so  huge  as  those 
in  the  Post-Tertiary  Age.  There  were  the  rhinoc- 
eros, and  the  hippopotamus;  also  the  mastodon,  a 
very  large  and  massive  kind  of  ancient  elephant; 
also  a  singular  kind  of  elephantine-hippopotamus- 


More  about  the  Age  of  Mammals.  187 

tapir;*  also  many  other  different  kinds  of  big  tapir- 
like  beasts;  also  stags  and  antelopes,  giraffes  and 
camels,  monkeys  and  crocodiles,  whales  and  dol- 
phins. All  these  flourished  on  land  or  in  water 
during  the  middle  part  of  the  Third  Period  in 
Britain  and  France,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of 
Europe  and  in  America. 

One  gigantic  extinct  tortoise  of  those  days  is 
described  as  having  been  not  less  than  eighteen 
feet  long — the  animal,  not  the  shell  only — and  as 
standing  seven  feet  high.  But  though  some  great 
reptiles  lived  still,  yet  their  Day  was  over. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Period,  as  already  said, 
marks  are  seen  of  a  change  in  the  climate.  Semi- 
tropical  plants  in  Europe  gradually  give  place  to 
those  which  tell  of  a  colder  atmosphere.  Also,  if 
the  rocks  containing  fossil-shells  are  examined — 
for  instance,  those  of  the  Crag  in  Norfolk — this 
gradual  change  is  distinctly  visible  in  passing  from 
layer  to  layer  upwards:  the  kinds  which  live  in 
warm  waters  yielding,  step  by  step,  to  those  which 
live  in  frigid  waters.  The  mammals,  however,  con- 
tinue much  the  same  as  earlier. 

In  a  certain  buried  forest,  near  Cromer,  once  dry 
*  Dinothere. 


1 88  The  World's  Foundations. 

land,  though  now  only  visible  on  the  shore  at  very 
low  tide,  the  remains  of  many  creatures  are  found 
amid  the  remains  of  tree-trunks — such  as  the  ele- 
phant, the  hippopotamus,  the  rhinoceros,  the  deer, 
and  smaller  animals.  The  mastodon  is  not  dis- 
covered there,  though  its  bones  lie  elsewhere  in 
English  rocks  of  that  date. 

On  the  European  and  American  continents,  the 
record  still  tells  us  of  the  ancient  whale,*  and  of  a 
kind  of  rhinocerosf  as  big  as  an  elephant,  with 
huge  horns.  Also,  there  were  horses,  somewhat 
like  those  of  modern  days,  only  one  kind  was  as 
small  as  a  fox;  and  all  kinds  seem  to  have  had  feet 
with  more  or  less  distinct  toes,  instead  of  the  single 
hoof  of  the  modern  horse.  Also,  there  were  masto- 
dons, elephants,  tigers,  wolves,  deer,  foxes,  porcu- 
pines, ant-eaters,  monkeys,  and  many  other  kinds. 
All  these  ranged  the  earth  late  in  the  Third  Period; 
but  not  one  of  them  was  exactly  the  same  as  any 
kind  living  now;  and,  among  them  all  are  to  be 
found  no  signs  of  ox  or  cow. 

*  Zeuglodon.  \  Dinocere. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    AGE    OF    ICE. 

'How  great  are  His  signs!  and  how  mighty  are  His  wonders!" 
— DAN.  iv.  3. 

WE  have  now  reached  comparatively  modern  days 
in  this  strange  old-world  history;  and  it  may  seem 
as  if  the  task  of  writing  about  those  days  ought  to 
be  easier  than  the  task  of  writing  about  more  dis- 
tant ages — yet,  in  reality,  it  is  not  so.  The  dim" 
culties  increase  with  the  increased  nearness  of  the 
time. 

This  is  not  hard  to  understand.  If  you  are  look- 
ing at  some  object  in  the  far  distance,  its  outline  is 
simple.  You  may  be  puzzled  to  decide  exactly 
what  that  object  is,  but  the  little  you  can  say  about 
it  is  easily  stated.  If,  on  the  contrary,  you  have 
to  describe  scenery  near  at  hand,  the  very  fulness 
of  details  makes  it  more  difficult  to  give  a  clear 
description. 


icp  The   World's  Foundations. 

The  same  is  found  in  the  history  of  men.  In 
telling  a  tale  of  ancient  days,  much  may  seem  dim 
and  doubtful;  but  the  whole  of  your  knowledge 
concerning  the  events  in  question,  whether  certain 
or  uncertain  knowledge,  may  be  summed  up  in  a 
few  clear  sentences.  But  try  to  write  a  history  of 
the  days  of  George  III.,  and  the  very  abundance  of 
facts,  the  complexity  of  accounts,  the  warmth  of 
feelings  involved,  will  add  a  thousandfold  to  your 
difficulties. 

So  it  is  in  Geology.  The  nearer  we  approach  to 
present  days,  the  greater  becomes  the  number  of 
facts  and  of  theories,  and  the  more  difficult  it  is 
to  put  all  that  has  to  be  said  into  one  or  two  brief 
chapters. 

All  fossil-shells  found  in  the  rocks,  belonging  to 
the  first  half  of  the  Post-Tertiary  Age,  are  the 
same  in  kind  as  those  now  living;  but  most  of  the 
mammals  have  died  out,  or  have  given  place  to 
new  kinds,  very  much  like,  yet  not  quite  like,  them- 
selves. 

Throughout  the  last  half  of  the  Post-Tertiary 
Age,  commonly  known  as  the  Recent  Age,  not 
only  shells,  but  in  a  great  measure  the  quadrupeds 
too,  agree  with  those  now  in  the  world. 


The  Age  of  Ice.  191 


The  Post-Tertiary  Age  seems  to  have  come  upon 
the  earth  in  the  shape  of  an  intensely  cold  period — 
the  great  Ice-Age  of  Geology. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  signs  in  certain 
later  Third-Period  rocks  of  a  change  of  climate 
— warm-water  shells  giving  place  to  Arctic  shells, 
and  semi-tropical  plants  to  those  of  more  northern 
latitudes. 

This  increase  of  cold  towards  the  close  of  the 
Third  Period,  seems  in  the  beginning  of  the  follow- 
ing Age  to  have  reached  a  climax  of  wide-spread 
and  long-continued  and  very  severe  frost  over  the 
temperate  latitudes. 

An  account  was  given  in  the  eighth  chapter  of 
the  Drift,  or  Till,  or  Boulder  Clay — different  names 
for  the  particular  soil  which  is  believed  to  bear  the 
marks  of  a  past  mighty  Ice-Age.  The  scratched 
stones,  the  scored  and  polished  rocks,  the  heaped- 
up  old  moraines  or  what  appear  to  be  such,  the 
huge  erratic  blocks  scattered  through  different  coun- 
tries and  seemingly  brought  from  a  distance,  the 
tough  clay  filled  with  sharp-edged  stones — all  these 
are  there  described. 

More  than  once  in  the  course  of  this  old-world 
rock-history,  mention  has  been  made  of  stones  and 
blocks  here  or  there,  which  may  possibly  have  been 


1 92  The   World's  Foundations. 

dropped  by  floating  icebergs  upon  the  half-built 
strata — though  it  is  quite  as  likely  that  some,  at 
least,  of  them  were  carried  out  to  sea,  entangled 
in  the  roots  of  floating  tree-trunks,  or  borne  on  a 
floating  island,  and  thus  dropped.  In  those  earlier 
cases  the  evidence  of  plants  and  animals  living  at 
the  time,  points  almost  without  exception  to  a  mild 
climate. 

But  in  the  great  Ice-Age,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much,  stone-markings,  blocks,  plants  and  shells,  all 
unite  to  tell  the  same  tale  of  intense  and  long- 
continued  cold. 

The  great  Ice-Age  is  commonly  believed  to  have 
taken  place  somewhere  near  the  beginning  of  the 
Post-Tertiary  Age. 

Of  course  this  does  not  fix  it  at  any  particular 
date.  In  geological  history  we  cannot  count  by 
years  and  centuries,  and  every  attempt  to  do  so 
sooner  or  later  breaks  down.  We  are  only  able  to 
count  by  "Periods"  and  "Ages,"  each  "Period" 
and  "Age"  being  of  unknown  length. 

Some  geologists  have  supposed  that  the  Ice-Age 
may  have  taken  place  many  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  years  ago,  while  others  suppose  it  to  have  been 
comparatively  quite  near  to  modern  times.  No  one 
can  tell  which  really  was  the  case. 


The  Age  of  Ice.  193 

We  know  so  much  as  this,  that  in  the  strata 
commonly  called  Post-Tertiary — some  of  the  latest 
formed,  and  in  fact  the  top-story  of  the  great  earth- 
crust  building — there  are  certain  signs  difficult  to 
explain.  Signs,  such  as  tough  clay,  filled  with 
jumbled  stones  of  all  shapes;  such  as  scratched 
and  polished  rock-surfaces,  and  scratched  and  pol- 
ished stones;  such  as  great  jagged  rock-masses  on 
mountain-tops,  brought  from  far-off  heights.  No 
theories  of  rushing  water  or  stormy  waves  are  suf- 
ficient to  explain  these  appearances. 

Therefore  it  is  that  the  belief  has  sprung  into 
being  of  enormous  and  wide -spreading  glaciers. 
For  this  same  work  of  polishing,  scoring  and  carry- 
ing, which  we  count  glaciers  to  have  accomplished 
in  the  past,  they  are  seen  to  be  daily  doing  in  the 
present. 

It  seems  a  tremendous  supposition  that,  after  the 
prolonged  ages  already  described  of  soft  and  warm 
climates  over  all  the  earth,  even  within  the  Arctic 
circle,  there  should  have  come  a  period  of  such 
amazing  cold,  as  to  bury  Canada  and  a  great  part 
of  the  United  States,  Scotland,  Switzerland,  and 
a  great  part  of  France  and  England,  under  enor- 
mous glaciers,  branching  in  all  directions,  spread- 
ing through  thousands  of  miles,  covering  all  lower 


194  The   World's  Foundations. 


heights,  and  reaching  two  or  three  thousand  feet 
up  the  sides  of  mountains.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
although  tremendous,  it  is  not  impossible.  "  Noth- 
ing is  impossible "  with  God.  And  as  at  present 
we  know  of  no  other  possible  cause  for  these  strange 
facts  and  appearances,  the  glacier  explanation  is 
accepted  as  in  all  probability  true. 

Another  thing  that  we  do  not  know  is  how  this 
great  change  in  the  climate  of  Earth  came  about. 
By  "how  it  came"  I  am  not  questioning  the  fact 
that  it  came  straight  from  God.  But  it  is  usually 
His  will  to  work  by  means;  and  what  means  He 
employed  to  bring  about  the  change  we  cannot 
tell.  Many  guesses  have  been  made,  some  ingen- 
ious ones  among  them;  but  none  yet  which  can  be 
honestly  and  fairly  accepted  as  entirely  satisfactory. 

It  was  rather  a  perplexity  in  connection  with  this 
cold  period,  that  though  the  shells  and  plants  and 
ice-marks  tell  of  a  frigid  climate,  yet  the  bones  of 
elephants  and  rhinoceroses  are  found  as  at  that 
time  living  in  England.  The  elephant  and  rhi- 
noceros are  not  usually  inhabitants  of  very  cold 
countries. 

The  difficulty  has  been  met  in  more  ways  than 
one.  Sometimes,  it  is  said,  these  creatures,  though 
living  in  warm  lands,  are  tound  to  wander  to  the 


The  Age  of  Ice.  195 


neighborhood  of  frost  and  snow,  as,  for  instance, 
when  a  Bengal  tiger  was  found  amid  the  snows  of 
the  Himalayas.  This  very  rare  event,  however, 
would  hardly  serve  to  explain  the  abundance  of 
huge  quadrupeds  in  England  through  those  days. 

Again,  it  has  been  suggested  that  regular  sum- 
mer and  winter  migrations  may  have  taken  place 
then  with  elephants  and  rhinoceroses,  as  now  with 
swallows.  The  supposition  seems  a  very  improb- 
able one. 

Again,  some  of  the  huge  quadrupeds  of  those 
times  are  known  to  have  had  a  warm  covering  of 
hair  and  wool,  which  would  have  fitted  them  to 
stand  severe  cold.  As  we  usually  know  them  only 
by  their  skeletons  and  footprints,  the  instances  are 
few  in  which  we  can  learn  anything  about  their 
skins.  Warm  woolly  coats  may  have  grown  upon 
them,  when  rendered  needful  by  increase  of  cold,  as 
we  now  see  with  animals  inhabiting  Arctic  regions. 

Following  after  the  Ice-Age,  we  find  signs  of 
great  floods  in  many  different  places.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  these  floods  were  caused  by  the 
rapid  melting  of  the  mighty  glaciers  which  so  long 
had  overspread  the  lands. 

Here  again,  as  before,  the  thought  of  the  Flood 


196  The  World's  Foundations. 

in  the  days  of  Noah  rises  to  mind.  Whether  that 
Flood  and  these  floods  of  which  the  rocks  tell  us 
were  the  same,  or  whether  as  some  think  they  were 
separated  by  a  wide  interval  of  time,  it  is  not 
possible  to  decide.  We  know  nothing  as  to  the 
date  of  the  Geological  floods.  But  in  either  case, 
it  should  ever  be  remembered  that  such  tremen- 
dous rushes  of  water  over  the  surface  of  the  earth 
must  have  worked  many  a  change  in  the  upper 
rock-layers,  and  have  added  fifty-fold  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  rightly  reading  the  latest-written  chapter 
in  the  Geological  volume. 

During  the  flood-time,  after  the  Ice-Age,  there 
was  probably  much  active  work  done,  in  the  way 
of  cutting  out  valleys,  and  carving  deep  ravines. 
Much,  though  not  all,  of  this  has  been  the  work 
of  running  water.  A  stream  of  water  may  flow 
long  over  a  nearly  level  plain  and  do  small  damage, 
but  if  rushing  down  a  steep  hill-side  it  will  tear 
away  earth,  and  wear  away  rocks  with  great  rapid- 
ity, deepening  its  channel,  and  cutting  its  path 
visibly  lower  from  year  to  year. 

Sometimes  this  time  of  floods,  or  a  time  following 
soon  after,  is  called  the  Terrace  Period.  In  a 
water-course,  the  old  levels  of  the  stream — those 
heights  at  which  it  ran  in  bygone  days,  before  it 


The  Age  of  Ice.  197 


had  cut  its  way  down  to  its  present  level — are  often 
to  be  seen  as  terrace  above  terrace,  or  shelf  above 
shelf,  on  either  bank.  The  highest  terrace  or  shelf 
is  the  oldest  level,  the  next  lower  the  next  oldest, 
and  so  on. 

After  the  floods,  a  time  is  supposed  to  have  suc- 
ceeded of  quiet  earth  and  sand  deposits  in  tranquil 
waters. 

The  uppermost  sandy  and  earthy  layers,  those 
which  have  been  spread  over  the  lands  by  overflow- 
ing waters  in  latest  times  of  all,  are  commonly 
spoken  of  as  "alluvium."  This  is  taken  from  a 
Latin  word,  meaning  "an  inundation." 

England,  in  the  days  following  after  the  Third 
Period,  was  indeed  a  different  country  from  Eng- 
land of  the  present. 

It  is  true  she  was  no  longer  inhabited  by  bird- 
reptiles  and  flying  dragons;  yet  her  inhabitants 
were  scarcely  less  startling,  though  perhaps  less 
grotesque. 

Enormous  elephants,  almost  twice  the  size  of 
modern  ones,  roamed  through  her  forests;  and 
huge  two-horned  rhinoceroses,  kept  the  elephants 
company;  and  great  tusked  hippopotamuses  wal- 
lowed in  her  swamps;  while  gigantic  lions  and 


198  The   World's  Foundations. 

tigers  disputed  the  palm  with  the  bigger  beasts; 
and  leopards  and  wolves,  deer  and  wild  horses, 
bears,  wild  cats,  and  countless  savage  hyaenas,  to- 
gether with  many  lesser  quadrupeds,  roved  in  her 
woods,  skulked  in  her  caves,  fought,  fled,  and  de- 
voured one  another.  Their  bones  are  found  in 
abundance  in  the  Post-Tertiary  rocks  of  England. 

The  principal  British  elephant  was  the  Mammoth, 
and  his  wanderings  extend  throughout  the  whole 
of  Northern  Europe  and  Siberia.  Thousands  of 
mammoth  grinders,  or  teeth,  are  found  in  England, 
and  thousands  of  mammoth  tusks  lie  in  Siberian 
soil.  This  great  creature  was  commonly  about 
twice  as  heavy  as  a  modern  elephant,  and  one- 
third  as  tall  again. 

A  whole  frozen  mammoth  was  found  in  Siberia 
— a  rare  geological  specimen !  Even  the  flesh  had 
been  preserved;  and  when  the  enormous  body  was 
released  from  its  ice-sepulchre,  the  bears  and  wolves 
ate  it  up.  This  particular  mammoth  was  nine  feet 
high  and  sixteen  feet  long,  not  counting  the  great 
curved  tusks.  It  was  covered  with  thick  black 
bristles,  about  fourteen  inches  long,  with  thick 
hair  four  inches  long,  and  with  wool  about  one 
inch  long.  Such  a  coat  might  in»general  well  fit 
the  elephant  for  an  Ice- Age,  though  even  it  seems 


The  Age  of  Ice.  199 


not  to  have  sufficed  for  the  defence  of  the  mammoth 
in  question  from  Siberian  frost. 

How  long  he  had  lain  in  his  ice-tomb  no  man  can 
say.  The  "very  fresh"  condition  of  the  flesh  and 
of  the  whole  carcase,  would  incline  one  to  think 
that  the  time  could  scarcely  be  so  long  as  some 
suppose. 

Also,  how  he  met  his  death  we  know  not.  The 
frost  must  indeed  have  seized  with  a  sudden  and 
mastering  grasp  upon  his  huge  frame,  thus  perfectly 
to  preserve  it  for  later  inspection. 

Besides  the  Mammoth,  the  Woolly  Rhinoceros 
flourished  in  Europe — another  instance  of  a  usually 
tropic  animal  fitted  to  bear  Arctic  cold.  The  car- 
case of  one  has  been  found  in  France. 

In  North  America  the  quadrupeds  were  as  a  rule 
less  large  than  in  Europe;  yet  the  other  continent 
had  its  fair  share  of  big  brutes. 

Mastodon  remains  are  found  in  America  as  well  as 
in  Britain  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  This  enor- 
mous animal  was,  again,  a  kind  of  elephant,  pecu- 
liarly colossal  and  powerful  in  build.  A  mastodon 
skeleton  may  be  seen  in  the  Natural  History  Muse- 
um.* Another  found  in  America,  is  eleven  feet 
high,  with  tusks  twelve  feet  long. 
*  South  Kensington. 


2OO  The   World 's  Foundations, 

There  was  also  a  huge  brute,*  somewhat  ap- 
proaching the  modern  sloth  in  kind — a  tremendous 
massive  slow  creature,  bigger  than  a  rhinoceros. 
One  such  skeleton  is  eighteen  feet  long. 

•  Megatherium. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE     AGE     OF    MAN. 
"  I  have  made  the  Earth,  and  created  Man  upon  it." — ISA.  xlv.  12. 

AMONG  the  uppermost  animal-remains  in  the  up- 
permost strata  of  the  great  Earth-crust  Building,  we 
meet  at  last  with  the  remains  of  Man.  Head  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom,  noblest  of  God's  works,  himself  a 
Mammal,  yet  utterly  superior  to  and  separate  from 
the  whole  brute  creation,  MAN  crowns  the  ascending 
steps  of  the  scale  of  life  upon  Earth.  We  have  now 
at  length  reached  a  time  which  is  but  as  yesterday 
compared  with  the  Ages  before. 

Different  kinds  of  human  relics  are  found,  such  as 
sometimes  a  human  skeleton  or  a  human  bone; 
sometimes  a  bit  of  human  workmanship;  sometimes 
long-disused  human  dwellings;  sometimes  human 
tools  of  a  more  or  less  rough  and  early  type. 

The  latter  sign  of  man's  life  upon  earth  in  any 
particular  place  should,  however,  be  accepted  with 


2O2  The  World's  Foundations. 

exceeding  caution.  The  roughest  and  earliest  flint 
tools  of  human  workmanship  approach  so  closely  to 
the  roughly  chipped  flints  of  Nature's  workmanship, 
which  exist  by  tens  of  thousands,  that  the  one  may 
often  be  mistaken  for  the  other;  and  many  so-called 
"  tools"  have  proved,  or  may  yet  prove,  to  be  noth- 
ing of  the  kind. 

In  the  course  of  long  searching  into  such  human 
remains  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  uppermost  rocks, 
certain  curious  facts  have  been  observed. 

It  is  found  that  in  each  nation,  as  a  rule,  the  ear- 
liest inhabitants,  who  were  generally  savages,  or 
who  were  at  least  untaught  and  uncivilized,  have 
made  use  of  the  simplest  material  lying  ready  to 
their  hands,  this  material  being  stone.  Later  on 
they  have  begun  to  find  out  the  uses  of  metal,  and 
have  learnt  to  fashion  some  sort  of  rough  bronze 
weapons  and  implements.  Later  on  still  they  have 
discovered  the  uses  of  iron. 

The  order  of  events  has  not,  of  course,  been  the 
same  in  every  nation  in  the  world.  Still  this  par- 
ticular order  has  been  so  often  noticed,  that  the  life 
of  Man  upon  earth  has  been  by  common  consent 
divided  into  three  ages  —  The  Stone -Age,  the 
Bronze-Age,  and  the  Iron-Age. 


The  Age  of  Man.  203 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  at  any  one  time  a 
Stone-Age  was  over  all  the  earth,  followed  by  an 
universal  Bronze-Age,  and  then  by  an  universal 
Iron-Age.  Some  countries  which  were  very  early 
peopled  have  left  their  Stone  and  Bronze  Ages 
behind  them  long  long  ago,  while  others,  more 
lately  peopled  have  not  yet  reached  the  Iron-Age. 

We  in  England  are  living  in  a  decidedly  Iron- 
Age,  having  left  far  behind  us  our  Stone  and  Bronze 
Ages.  But  a  great  many  of  the  natives  of  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  and  of  Central  Africa,  are  still  living  in 
their  Stone  or  Bronze  Ages,  and  have  no  notion 
yet  of  the  Iron.  Again,  the  Stone  and  Bronze 
Ages  in  different  parts  of  North  America  lasted  up 
to  some  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  then  by  a 
quick  transition  she  passed  rapidly  on  into  an  Iron- 
Age. 

So  the  inhabitants  of  many  countries  travel 
through  these  stages,  but  not  the  inhabitants  of 
all  countries  side  by  side. 

Each  country  has  its  Historical  Period,  and  its 
Pre-Historical  Period,  and  its  Geological  Period. 
About  the  Historical  Period  we  have  more  or  less 
clear  accounts  handed  down  in  writing  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  Sometimes  we  have  the  full 
history  of  a  country  from  the  time  when  it  was  first 


2O4  The  World's  Foundations. 

peopled;  but  more  often  the  Pre-Historical  Period 
means  a  time  when  men  lived  there,  but  about 
which  little  or  no  history  has  come  down  to  us. 
Sometimes  geology  can  take  up  the  thread  where 
history  fails,  and  can  give  us  dimly  a  few  scattered 
facts  as  to  the  life  of  man  in  a  country  before  his- 
toric times. 

As  we  go  back  in  English  History,  we  have 
tolerably  clear  light  until  we  reach  Saxon  days. 
Then,  as  we  pass  on,  a  kind  of  morning  twilight 
remains  through  a  few  hundred  years,  till  we  reach 
the  days  of  Julius  Caesar.  A  little  way  further  still 
we  may  grope  our  way  in  a  dusky  atmosphere,  but 
soon  all  surrounding  scenery  is  lost  in  black  night, 
and  written  records  fail.  A  few  fitful  legends,  like 
the  dancing  ignis  fatuus,  rather  help  to  lead  us 
astray  than  to  light  us  onward,  and  presently  even 
these  fail.  Then  it  is,  if  not  sooner,  that  we  reach 
the  Pre-Historical  Period;  and  then  it  is  that  geol- 
ogy steps  in  and  gives  us  a  few  hints  as  to  a  pos- 
sible Stone-Age  before. 

Scottish  history  is  lost  in  fog  and  darkness  rather 
earlier,  while  in  French  history  the  light  lasts  a 
little  longer.  In  Grecian  history  you  may  wander 
onward  for  a  considerable  distance  further  before 
night  shrouds  the  landscape. 


The  Age  of  Man.  205 

So  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the  nations. 
The  historic  period  of  the  United  States  is  but  a 
thing  of  yesterday,  compared  with  the  historic  peri- 
od of  Great  Britain.  The  historic  period  of  Great 
Britain  is  but  a  thing  of  yesterday,  compared  with 
the  historic  period  of  Egypt  or  of  Assyria.  In  each 
of  these  different  instances,  where  history  fails, 
geology  may  take  up  the  thread  and  tell  us  a  little, 
a  very  little,  about  the  age  preceding.  But  all  dates 
are  in  confusion  and  uncertainty  where  we  have  only 
the  geological  volume  to  depend  upon. 

One  singular  fact  as  to  human  remains  is  that 
they  are  actually  found,  in  England  and  France, 
side  by  side  with  the  bones  of  the  mastodon,  the 
cave-bear,  the  ancient  hyaena,  and  other  animals 
now  no  longer  seen. 

It  is  not  safe  to  build  too  much  upon  this  fact. 
As  before  stated,  the  upper  layers  of  earth  and  rock 
may  have  been  in  many  places  so  changed  and  dis- 
turbed by  the  action  of  great  floods  in  later  times, 
as  very  much  to  affect  our  power  of  rightly  reading 
them.  Still,  the  impression  given  by  these  bones 
being  found  together  naturally  is  that  the  animals 
and  men  to  which  they  belonged  probably  lived  at 
about  the  same  time. 


206  The   World's  Foundations. 

There  are  caves  in  the  south  of  England  and  in 
the  south  of  France  where  very  large  numbers  of 
bones  have  been  discovered,  not  lying  on  the 
ground,  but  buried  a  little  way  below  ground. 
Bones  of  hyaenas,  wolves,  and  bears  are  found  in 
profusion;  and  in  very  rare  instances,  quite  near  the 
surface,  a  human  bone,  or  even  a  human  skeleton  is 
discovered  among  them. 

It  is  not  an  absolute  certainty,  because  a  human 
bone  is  seen  there  that  the  human  being  lived 
alongside  with  the  other  animals  whose  bones  are 
in  the  same  cave  and  at  the  same  depth  in  the  soil. 
Some  who  have  carefully  examined  these  caves  be- 
lieve it  possible,  from  the  singular  manner  in  which 
the  bones  are  mixed  up  and  rolled  together,  that  a 
strong  flood  may  have  poured  through  the  cave, 
washing  earth,  and  perhaps  bones  also,  in  from  out- 
side, and  destroying  all  regularity  of  arrangement. 
Whether  or  no  this  was  the  case,  the  bare  idea 
shows  how  little  we  can  build  upon  appearances 
without  further  knowledge. 

But  suppose  that  when  such  further  knowledge  is 
obtained,  we  find  stronger  and  stronger  proof  of  men 
having  really  lived  alongside  with  certain  extinct 
animals  ? 

Why  not  ?    We  do  not  know  at  what  date  any  one 


The  Age  of  Man.  207 


species  of  any  one  kind  of  animal  did  really  die  out. 
We  only  know  that  they  do  not  exist  now,  and 
that  above  certain  rock-layers  we  have  not  yet 
alighted  upon  their  remains.  But  any  one  kind  of 
animal  may  have  existed  still,  though  in  lessening 
numbers,  long  after  the  particular  age  of  the  last 
fossil  or  bone  of  that  particular  kind  found  by 
man. 

Many  specimens  of  these  creatures  may  have 
lingered  on  past  the  time  of  Adam  or  into  the 
times  of  the  Patriarchs.  Some  have  thought  Job's 
description  of  Behemoth  wonderfully  suited  to  the 
huge  mastodon — far  more  so  than  to  the  modern 
elephant;  and  Job  is  believed  to  have  lived  in  a 
very  early  age  of  the  history  of  man. 

Moreover  it  is  well  known  that  animals  have  died 
out  of  existence  in  a  much  shorter  period  than  since 
the  days  of  the  Patriarchs.  The  Dodo,  a  large  bird, 
which  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  very  plenti- 
ful in  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  has  since 
become  entirely  extinct,  not  one  solitary  specimen 
remaining.  This  is  but  one  instance  among  several. 

Sometimes  the  Stone-Age  is  divided  into  three 
parts.  The  middle  one  of  these,  the  Reindeer 
Era,  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  second  Ice-Age, 
a  return  of  cold,  severe,  though  less  intense  than 


2o8  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  cold  of  the  great  Ice- Age,  taking  place  after 
a  period  of  comparative  mildness. 

All  these  later  sub-divisions  are,  however,  very 
uncertain.  Different  books  give  them  differently, 
and  the  same  plans  or  rules  cannot  be  applied  to 
all  countries  alike.  The  whole  may  have  to  be 
rearranged  before  many  years  are  over,  as  ad- 
vance is  made  in  knowledge.  Exceeding  caution 
in  decision,  and  patient  willingness  to  wait  for 
further  information,  are  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  this  science,  even  more  than  in  other  sciences, 
to  keep  us  from  falling  into  grave  blunders,  and 
*-»  o-nard  our  feet  from  dangerous  quagmires. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    TWO    RECORDS. 

«'  Lo,  He  that  formeth  the  mountains,  and  createth  the  wind,  and  de- 
clared unto  man  what  is  His  thought,  that  maketh  the  morning  dark- 
ness, and  treadeth  upon  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  The  Lord,  the  God 
of  Hosts,  is  His  Name." — AMOS  iv.  13. 

A  FEW  more  words,  and  the  Second  Part  of  my 
little  book  will  be  ended. 

This  is  not  a  strictly  religious  work,  but  no  vol- 
ume on  the  subject  of  Geology  can  be  fairly  and 
honestly  written  without  frequent  reference  to  the 
Divine  Architect  of  the  great  Earth-crust  Building. 

Some  slight  mention  has  already  been  made  of 
the  first  chapter  in  Genesis,  and  the  Days  or  Ages 
of  Creation  there  described. 

To  reconcile  each  separate  detail  as  given  in  the 
Book  of  Divine  Revelation  and  as  given  in  the  Book 
of  Nature,  is  a  matter  not  yet  possible  with  our  pre- 
sent imperfect  knowledge. 

Many  explanations  have  indeed  been  offered  of 


2IO  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  Bible  record  of  Creation,  in  connection  with 
late  scientific  discoveries;  and  many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  dovetail  the  one  account  in  with  the 
other.  Any  one  of  these  may  approach  more  or 
less  closely  to  the  true  explanation,  though  in 
each  some  flaw  may  be  discernible. 

But  what  then?  What  if  all  explanations  hith- 
erto offered  are  more  or  less  mistaken?  What  if 
the  true  clue  to  the  perplexity,  the  real  point  of 
harmony,  lies  at  so  lofty  a  height  as  to  be  beyond 
the  utmost  stretch  of  human  intellect  ? 

Then  be  it  so.  The  grand  Truth  of  either  record 
remains  still  unshaken. 

For  we  must  ever  remember  that  these  two  rec- 
ords, the  story  told  in  Genesis  and  the  story  told 
in  the  Earth-crust,  proceed  both  from  the  same 
Divine  Author.  They  do  but  give  different  views 
of  the  same  grand  realities.  Though  our  reading  of 
the  one  may  seem  to  conflict  with  our  reading  of 
the  other,  they  cannot  be  in  themselves  at  variance. 

Moreover,  the  one  Record  may  and  should  be 
used  as  a  help  to  the  understanding  of  the  other. 
If  certain  new  discoveries  prove  beyond  a  doubt 
that  the  commonly-received  interpretation  of  cer- 
tain Bible-words  is  wrong,  then  that  interpretation 
may  be  given  up,  but  the  truth  of  the  written  Word 


The  Two  Records.  211 

stands  untouched.  There  should,  however,  be  the 
utmost  caution  shown  in  accepting  new  theories  and 
explanations.  Many,  if  left  alone,  soon  die  a  nat- 
ural death. 

Many  questions  must  remain  for  a  while  longer  in 
uncertainty,  and  we  must  be  content  to  have  it  so, 
knowing  our  own  liability  to  misread  and  misinterpret 
both  the  Written  Volume  and  the  Rock-Record. 

With  regard  to  the  Bible-Record  of  Creation,  a 
few  brief  suggestions  may  be  a  help  to  some  minds. 

We  do  not  know  how  far  the  inspired  writer  was 
led  to  give  a  narrative  of  events  in  the  precise  order 
in  which  they  actually  occurred.  A  certain  group- 
ing of  leading  events,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  within 
the  limits  of  exact  truth,  is  sometimes  adopted  in 
very  short  narratives.  The  writer  appears  here,  as 
he  passes  rapidly  on,  to  seize  in  each  Day  upon  one 
or  two  leading  points  of  interest — the  prominent 
facts  of  the  period.  Many  lesser  points  of  interest 
and  minor  facts  doubtless  existed  alongside;  but 
with  these  he  is  not  concerned.  He  gives  the 
names  of  the  topmost  mountain-peaks  in  the  scen- 
ery, and  attempts  no  description  of  lower  heights. 

We  do  not  know  how  far  his  language  is  literal 
and  how  far  it  is  figurative.  Both  styles  are  largely 
used  in  the  Bible. 


212  The  World's  Foundations. 

We  do  not  know  whether  that  which  he  describes 
was  told  him  in  words,  or  was  revealed  to  him  in 
vision;  and  if  the  latter,  whether  it  was  by  one 
vision  or  by  a  succession  of  visions. 

We  do  not  know  how  far  he  was  led  to  describe 
things  simply  as  they  would  have  appeared  to  an 
observer,  standing  on  the  unfinished  earth  during 
the  Creation-Days, — a  style  not  unfrequently  em- 
ployed in  the  Bible.  This  would  tend  to  explain 
certain  difficulties,  such  as  the  mention  of  light  on 
the  First  Day,  but  of  the  sun  and  moon  not  sooner 
than  the  Fourth  Day. 

We  do  not  know  whether,  as  some  think,  the 
Days  may  mean  vast  periods  or  ages  of  time,  or 
whether,  as  others  think,  they  may  rather  refer  to 
an  appearance  of  days  and  nights,  caused  by  a  suc- 
cession of  visions  sent  to  Moses,  each  in  turn  dawn- 
ing, brightening,  and  vanishing  in  darkness. 

It  has  been  the  opinion  of  many  that  between 
the  first  and  second  verses  in  Genesis  a  vast  inter- 
val of  time  is,  or  may  be,  passed  over. 

Some  have  even  held  that  the  countless  ages  of 
Geologic  history  may  have  been  contained  in  that 
interval,  followed  by  universal  destruction  of  life, 
by  a  period  of  chaos,  and  by  Days  of  new  creation. 

Others  again  have  been  struck  with  certain  broad 


The  Two  Records.  213 

outlines  of  remarkable  agreement  in  the  Days  and 
the  Ages  of  the  two  Records:  first,  as  to  the  grad- 
ual preparation  of  the  earth;  secondly,  as  to  the 
gradual  development  of  life  upon  earth,  proceeding 
upwards  step  by  step  from  lower  to  higher  forms.* 
The  above  are  some  among  the  many  sugges- 
tions offered  by  different  writers.  We  shall  be  wise 
to  hold  our  thoughts  free,  and  to  wait  for  fuller 
knowledge  of  the  deep  meanings  underlying  the 
brief  Bible  narrative.  When  both  records  are  fully 
understood,  we  shall  be  amazed  at  the  majestic 
completeness  of  the  two  combined,  at  the  won- 
drous simplicity  of  that  which  now  seems  to  us 
complex  and  mysterious.  By-and-by  we  shall  have 
power  to  grasp  the  whole.  At  present  we  know 
only  that — "HE  SPAKE,  AND  IT  WAS  DONE;  HE 
COMMANDED,  AND  IT  STOOD  FAST." 

*  One  hint  may  be  offered  here  with  regard  to  the  creation  of  "  great 
whales,"  spoken  of  in  Gen.  i.  21,  as  preceding  the  creation  of  Mammals, 
which  was  in  turn  followed  by  the  creation  of  Man.  The  Hebrew  word 
there  translated  "Whales,"  and  elsewhere  translated  "Dragons"  (see 
Psa.  Ixxiv.  13;  xci.  13;  cxlviii.  7,  etc.),  is  derived  from  the  verb  tanan, 
to  extend,  and  may  signify  any  long  sea  or  land  animals,  serpents,  croco- 
diles, etc.,  as  much  as  whales.  Also  the  Greek  word,  "nrjTrjy  used  in  the 
Septuagint  translation  of  the  same,  does  not  necessarily  mean  whales 
only,  but  any  huge  sea-monsters.  A  recollection  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles 
naturally  occurs  to  mind. 


214  The  World's  Foundations. 

A  more  easy  task  lies  before  us  in  the  third  and 
last  section  of  this  little  book.  We  have  learnt, 
first,  the  simple  alphabet  of  Geology.  We  have 
read,  secondly,  a  brief  sketch  of  the  history  written 
in  earth's  rocks.  We  have  to  gather,  thirdly,  from 
the  events  going  on  daily  around  us  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  certain  facts  which  may  help  us 
to  a  better  understanding  of  the  great  Rock  His- 
tory— to  view,  as  it  were,  the  Past  in  the  light  of 
the  Present. 

For  though  we  may  in  a  sense  talk  of  the  Earth- 
Crust  Building  as  finished — the  lower,  middle,  and 
upper  stories  all  complete — yet  it  is  so  only  in  a 
sense.  Still  the  same  busy  workers  are  ceaselessly 
employed,  ever  pulling  down  and  building  up,  ever 
making  alterations,  ever  taking  away  here  and  add- 
ing there. 

Much  more  attention  has  thus  far  been  given  to 
the  working  of  the  great  agent,  Water,  than  to  the 
working  of  the  great  fellow-agent,  Fire.  This  could 
hardly  be  otherwise,  since  it  is  in  the  Water-made 
rocks,  and  not  in  the  Fire-made  rocks,  that  we  find 
the  written  record  of  the  life  of  plants  and  animals 
upon  earth. 

The  fact  should  not,  however,  be  lost  sight  of 
that,  side  by  side  with  the  writing  of  the  life-record 


The  Two  Records.  215 

in  the  water-built  rocks,  the  formation  of  fire-made 
rocks  was  going  on  in  different  places.  There  are 
such  rocks,  sometimes  arranged  in  layers  and  some- 
times not,  believed  to  belong  to  each  different  pe- 
riod in  Geology.  But  it  is  much  more  difficult  to 
fix  the  comparative  ages  of  fire-made  than  of  water- 
made  rocks.  By  their  "  ages,"  I  mean  ages  counted 
in  periods,  not  in  centuries. 

In  the  Third  Part,  somewhat  fuller  attention  will 
be  given  to  the  working  of  the  mighty  underground 
agent,  Fire,  though  want  of  space  will  forbid  full 
details  on  any  subject. 

A  word  of  caution  is  perhaps  advisable  at  the 
outset. 

We  may  fairly  and  rightly  examine  the  working 
of  the  different  forces  as  seen  in  the  present  day, 
and  may  learn  much  from  that  working  about  their 
action  in  past  ages. 

But  there  is  a  danger  lest  this  mode  of  reasoning 
be  pushed  too  far. 

There  have  been  men  of  powerful  intellect  who, 
long  and  earnestly  studying  thus,  have  arrived  at 
the  belief,  that  precisely  as  these  powers  are  now 
observed  to  work,  so  they  always  have  worked 
through  countless  ages  past.  In  other  words,  they 
hold  that  throughout  the  vast  periods  of  Geological 


216  The  World's  Foundations. 

history,  rocks  have  never  been  more  rapidly  wasted, 
river-deltas  have  never  been  more  rapidly  formed, 
coral,  chalk  and  limestone  have  never  been  more 
rapidly  made,  earthquakes  have  never  been  might- 
ier, land  has  never  risen  or  sunk  more  extensively 
and  rapidly,  than  the  speed  with  which  these  things 
have  been  known  to  take  place  within  the  last  few 
hundred  years. 

That  such  has  been  the  case  we  can,  to  say  the 
least,  possess  no  certainty.  The  fact  that  a  par- 
ticular thing  has  existed  under  particular  conditions 
during  so  many  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years, 
affords  no  proof  whatever  that  it  so  existed  during 
preceding  ages.  The  one  does  not  follow  as  a 
necessity  upon  the  other.  We  may  guess,  may 
suppose,  may  imagine,  but  we  cannot  KNOW  it  to 
have  been  thus. 

We  see  about  us  certain  powers  incessantly  at 
work.  Water  wears  away  land.  Fiery  heat  surges 
underground.  Coral  islands  and  reefs  are  slowly 
built.  Limestone  is  gradually  formed.  These  things 
go  on  now,  and  these  things  have  gone  on  in  the 
past.  It  is,  however,  no  easy  matter  to  say  how 
fast  they  go  on  now,  since  the  rate  of  waste,  or  of 
growth,  or  of  change,  is  seldom  the  same  in  two 
places.  And  even  if  we  could  fix  on  any  particular 


The  Two  Records.  217 

rate  for  each,  as  generally  not  far  wrong  in  the 
present,  that  would  be  no  sure  guide  as  to  the  past. 
Differing  circumstances  in  the  way  of  climate,  at- 
mosphere, land,  ocean-currents,  underground  forces, 
may  each  or  all  have  affected  in  a  marked  degree 
the  speed  of  alterations  on  the  earth's  surface 
through  earlier  times. 

For  after  all,  when  we  talk  of  judging  the  past 
from  the  present,  what  is  that  "present?"  The 
life  of  man  upon  earth  is  but  a  thing  of  yesterday, 
compared  with  the  ages  preceding.  What  do  we 
know  of  the  mighty  changes,  the  vast  upheavals, 
the  great  dislocations,  the  tremendous  destructions 
of  life,  the  wondrous  times  of  renewal,  which  may 
have  taken  place — ay,  and  may  equally  have  taken 
place  either  slowly  or  rapidly,  gradually  or  sud- 
denly ?  God  may  have  had  His  very  different  modes 
of  working  in  different  periods,  whether  known  or 
unknown  to  us. 

Even  supposing  that  the  forces  of  Nature  may 
have  continued  the  same  in  intensity  during  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  years  past — a  question  which 
cannot  be  decided  with  certainty — is  it  conceivable 
that  they  should  have  been  the  same  in  yet  earlier 
ages,  before  the  earth  had  parted  with  its  heat  so 
far  as  it  has  since  done  ? 


218  The   World's  Foundations. 

For  there  was  a  time,  as  we  believe,  when  our 
earth  was  a  sun — small  indeed  compared  with  the 
great  central  orb  of  our  system,  yet  a  true  burning 
sun,  a  tiny  star  shining  by  its  own  light.  Looking 
back  to  that  far-off  time,  remembering  the  count- 
less ages  between,  and  the  mighty  changes  involved, 
this  "uniformity  theory,"  as  it  is  called,  seems  a 
thing  incredible. 

Thus,  here,  as  in  other  matters,  it  befits  us  to 
be  cautious,  to  be  humble,  to  be  content  to  await 
fuller  knowledge. 

On  the  page  following  will  be  found  a  list  of  the 
Geological  Periods  and  Ages,  somewhat  more  full 
than  the  short  Table  of  Strata  already  given.*  It 
should  perhaps  be  mentioned  that  the  distinction 
between  Periods  and  Ages,  kept  up  generally  for 
the  sake  of  clearness  throughout  this  volume,  is 
not  observed  as  a  constant  rule  by  writers  on  Geol- 
ogy. The  two  terms  are  often  used  interchange- 
ably, not  to  say  confusedly. 

*  Page  59- 


The  Two  Records.  219 


THE    AGES    OF    GEOLOGY. 
I.  PRIMARY   (FIRST)   PERIOD; 

OR     PALEOZOIC     (ANCIENT -LIFE)     PERIOD. 

1.  LAURENTIAN  AGE ;  so  named  from  rocks  found 

near  the  River  Lawrence. 

First  and  Simplest  Forms  of  Animal  Life. 

2.  CAMBRIAN  AGE  ;  so  named  from  rocks  found  in 

Wales;  sometimes  counted  as  part  of  the  Si- 
lurian. 

Age  of  Invertebrates,  or  Boneless  Lower  Ani- 
mals. 

3.  SILURIAN  AGE ;  so  named  from  Silures,  ancient 

name  for  a  tribe  in  Wales,  where  these  rocks 
also  are  found. 

Age  of  Invertebrates,  or  Boneless  Lower  Ani- 
mals, continued. 

4.  DEVONIAN  AGE ;  also  known  in  part  as  Old  Red 

Sandstone.     Called  Devonian  because  largely 
visible  in  Devonshire. 

Age  of  Fishes,  or  First  Backboned  Animals. 


220  The  World's  Foundations. 

5.  CARBONIFEROUS  AGE  ;  rocks  found  in  England, 

France,  America,  and  elsewhere. 

Age  of  Coal,  Age  of  Ancient  Forests,  and 
Age  of  Amphibians. 

6.  PERMIAN  AGE ;  so  named  from  Perm,  a  Russian 

province,  where  these  rocks  are  found ;  some- 
times classed  as  one  with,  and  sometimes  as 
following  after,  the  Carboniferous  Age. 
Close  of  the  Forest  Age. 

II.  SECONDARY   (SECOND)   PERIOD; 

OR    MESOZOIC    (MIDDLE-LIFE)   PERIOD. 

r.  TRIASSIC  AGE ;  so  named  by  German  writers, 
because  in  Germany  these  rocks  are  divided 
into  a  Triple  group. 
Age  of  Reptiles. 

2.  JURASSIC  AGE ;  so  named  from  the  Jura  Moun- 

tains, where  these  rocks  are  visible. 
Age  of  Reptiles,  continued. 

3.  CRETACEOUS    AGE;    so    named   from    a   Latin 

word,  creta,  chalk. 

Age  of  Chalk;  also  Later  Age  of  Rhizopods  ; 
also  Age  of  Reptiles,  continued ;  also  time  of 
first  appearance  of  Mammals  and  Flowering 
Plants. 


The  Two  Records.  221 

III.  TERTIARY   (THIRD)   PERIOD; 

OR   CAINOZOIC    (NEW-LIFE)    PERIOD. 

1.  EOCENE  AGE;  from  Greek  words,  77035,  dawn,  and 

xaixos,  new.     Shells,  very  few  of  living  species. 
Age  of  Mammals. 

2.  MIOCENE   AGE;    from   jietov,   less,   and   xatvos, 

new.     Shells,  less  than  half  the  number  found, 
of  living  species. 

Age  of  Mammals,  continued. 

3.  PLIOCENE  AGE  ;  from  ntetov,  more,  and  xatvos, 

new.    Shells,  more  than  half  the  number  found, 
of  living  species. 

Age  of  Mammals,  continued. 

4.  PLEISTOCENE   AGE;   from   nisidros,   most,   and 

xarxo?,  new.     Shells,  the  greater  number  found, 
of  living  species. 

Age  of  Mammals,  continued. 

POST-TERTIARY  AGE;  sometimes  included  in  the 
Tertiary,  sometimes  counted  as  following  after. 

1.  Post-Pliocene : 

Age  of  Mammals,  continued. 

2.  Recent: 

Age  of  Man. 


222  The  World's  Foundations. 

In  America  this  Post-Tertiary  (or  After-Third)  is  called  the  Quater- 
nary Age;  and  is  divided  into — 

I.  The  Glacial  Age,  or  Age  of  the  Drift; 

II.  The  Champlain  Age;  divided  again  into  Diluvian  and  Alluvian 
Epochs; 

HI.  The  Recent  or  Terrace  Age;  divided  again  into  Reindeer  and 
Modem  Era. 

But  these  particular  arrangements  and  subdivisions  are  arbitrary,  and 
most  remain  subject  to  much  future  alteration. 


PART   III. 

THE  PAST  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRESENT, 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

RIVERS. 
"In  Thine  hand  is  power  and  might." — I  CHRON.  xxix.  12. 

MUCH  has  been  already  said  about  the  work  per- 
formed in  the  world  by  running  water.  This  work 
may  be  divided  into  three  distinct  parts.  First, 
water  wastes,  breaks  up,  crumbles,  or  wears  away 
land.  Secondly,  it  carries  the  wasted  material, 
whether  rocks,  stones,  pebbles,  sand,  or  soil,  tow- 
ards the  ocean.  Thirdly,  it  drops  or  deposits  that 
material  on  the  sea-bottom. 

Most  of  the  valleys,  ravines,  gorges,  and  clefts  in 
the  world  have  been  more  or  less  formed  by  the 
action  of  running  water — sometimes  partly,  some- 
times entirely. 

When  you  see  a  stream  rushing  swiftly  down  a 
mountain-side,  you  are  inclined  to  think  of  that 
stream  as  a  fixed  part  of  the  scenery — at  one  time, 


226  The  World's  Foundations. 

indeed,  more  full  than  at  another  time,  but  remain- 
ing through  centuries  the  same. 

Yet  this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  stream 
is  busily  engaged  in  cutting  out  for  itself  a  path- 
way deeper  and  deeper  into  the  earth  or  through 
the  rock,  whichever  may  form  its  bed.  Each  river, 
each  stream,  each  brook  in  the  world  is  doing  this 
work.  And  very  wonderful  it  is  to  see  how  the 
hardest  rock  is  worn  away  by  the  soft  water  which 
runs  perpetually  over  it. 

Water  is  made  of  the  two  gases,  Oxygen  and 
Hydrogen.  Perfectly  pure  water  would  have  little 
or  no  power  in  wearing  away  rock,  but  it  almost 
always  contains  a  certain  amount  of  the  powerful 
Carbonic  Acid  Gas.  This  gas,  so  needful  to  the 
structure  of  plants  and  animals,  yet  so  fatal  to  ani- 
mal-life, has  a  singular  power  of  eating  away  rock, 
and  causing  it  to  crumble  beneath  the  flowing  water. 

Water  when  warm  dissolves  hard  substances 
much  more  rapidly  than  when  cold.  Warm  water 
in  a  natural  state  is  now  only  to  be  seen  in  certain 
places,  but  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  world's  history 
it  may  have  been  much  more  common.  This  is  one 
of  the  "may-bes,"  which  render  utterly  uncertain 
all  attempted  calculations  of  time  in  those  early 
ages. 


Rivers.  227 


The  movements  of  stones  and  sand  in  running 
water  help  that  water  in  its  work.  Every  rock  that 
grinds  against  another  rock,  every  stone  that  is 
washed  against  the  bank,  every  grain  of  sand  that 
rubs  in  passing  against  a  boulder,  does  its  little 
share  in  the  task  of  "wearing  away." 

At  the  Linn  of  Quoich,  which  is  part  of  the 
River  Dee,  a  singular  instance  may  be  seen  of  the 
cutting  and  carving  power  of  running  water.  A 
neat  round  hollow  in  the  hard  rock,  close  to  the 
stream — laid  bare  in  dry  seasons,  but  overflowed 
when  the  water  is  high — has  long  existed,  called 
in  the  neighborhood  "  The  Earl  of  Mar's  Punch- 
bowl." 

In  past  days  this  hollow  was  like  a  huge  round 
cup  in  the  rock,  with  a  solid  rock  bottom.  But  the 
waters  which  first  made  the  hole  did  not  stop  there. 
Still  they  went  on  washing  round  and  round,  car- 
rying pebbles  round  and  round  with  them,  and  still 
the  restless  waters  and  the  hard  stones  continued 
their  "wearing  away"  work,  till  at  last  the  bottom 
was  quite  gone,  and  now  the  former  "  bowl "  is  a 
deep  round  hole,  with  water  filling  it  from  below. 
It  was  probably  begun,  in  the  first  instance,  by  the 
simple  rocking  to  and  fro  of  a  boulder  on  the  bed 
of  the  stream.  A  slight  hollow  being  thus  formed, 


228  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  water  would  soon  take  to  a  circular  motion  in 
the  hollow,  and  the  movement  of  stones  with  the 
water  would  gradually  accomplish  the  rest. 

Such  holes  are  sometimes  called  Pot-holes.  There 
is  a  large  one  in  America,  named  "  The  Basin,"  fif- 
teen feet  deep  and  over  twenty  feet  across.  Some 
very  large  holes  of  this  description  may  also  be 
seen  at  Lucerne,  displayed  as  "  Glacier-holes,"  but 
more  probably  in  the  first  instance  fashioned  by 
the  action  of  running  water  and  circling  stones. 

A  stream  coursing  quietly  over  an  almost  level 
plain  has  no  great  wasting  power.  It  is  when  wa- 
ter descends  a  steep  height  that  the  work  goes  on 
most  quickly.  A  waterfall,  or  a  torrent  on  a  moun- 
tain-side, cuts  its  way  rapidly  backwards. 

Sometimes  a  powerful  mountain  torrent  may  be 
seen  rushing  down  a  narrow  gorge,  with  high  rocky 
precipices  rising  steeply  on  either  side.  In  such  a 
case  you  may  be  pretty  sure  that,  whether  or  no 
the  work  of  gorge-forming  began  thus,  the  water 
has  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  carrying  it  on. 
Once  upon  a  time  the  stream  probably  ran  much 
nearer  to  the  tops  of  the  cliffs  than  now,  and 
level,  but  through  centuries  past  it  has  been 
gradually  eating  its  way  down  to  its  present 
level.  The  passage  of  the  foaming  Reuss  through 


Rivers.  229 

the  rocky  pass  of  St.  Gotthard,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Pont  du  Diable,  is  a  good  example  of 
this. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  most  of  the  larger 
valleys  have  not  been  formed  by  the  action  of  water 
alone,  but  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  by  the  effects 
of  underground  disturbances,  through  earthquakes 
or  earth-splittings. 

Some  instances  of  very  rapid  valley -forming 
through  water-action  have  been  seen.  m 

On  the  Vispback,  in  1857,  a  sudden  landslip  laid 
bare  an  underground  spring  of  water,  unknown  be- 
fore to  have  been  in  existence.  Henceforth  a 
stream  flowed  down  the  mountain-side  from  the  un- 
earthed spring,  and  this  stream  immediately  began 
the  work  of  cutting  for  itself  a  channel.  In  the 
course  of  three  years  it  dug  a  "gully,"  as  described 
by  an  eye-witness.  Eight  years  later  when  the 
same  eye-witness  went  to  the  spot,  he  found  that 
the  stream  had  deepened  and  widened  the  little 
gap  to  such  a  degree,  that  a  vineyard,  which  before 
the  opening  out  of  the  spring  had  been  unbroken, 
was  cut  in  sunder  by  a  chasm  over  forty  yards  in 
width,  and  at  its  shallowest  part  some  fifteen  feet  in 
depth. 


230  The  World's  Foundations. 

It  has  been  found  in  America  that  the  levelling 
of  ancient  forests  often  results  in  new  valleys  being 
formed.  Near  Georgia  a  certain  forest  was  thus  cut 
down,  uncovering  the  clay  soil,  which  the  heat  of 
the  sun  thereupon  cracked  in  many  places.  Some 
of  the  cracks  were  three  feet  deep.  When  the  rains 
set  in,  a  rush  of  water  taking  its  course  through  the 
largest  crack  rapidly  deepened  it,  and  at  one  end 
steadily  wore  a  way  backwards.  The  crack  grew 
into  a  chasm,  widening,  lengthening,  and  invad- 
ing the  high-road  which  lay  near  at  hand.  In 
the  course  of  twenty  years  this  new  little  valley 
increased,  till  it  measured  three  hundred  yards  in 
length,  fifty-five  feet  in  depth,  and  at  its  broadest 
one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  width.  Another 
such  gorge,  twice  as  large,  was  made  in  Brazil  in 
forty  years. 

The  material  worn  away  in  these  cases  was  soft. 
Where  solid  rock  is  concerned  the  work  is  necessar- 
ily slower;  yet  even  here  the  speed  is  often  greater 
than  one  would  expect. 

At  the  base  of  the  volcano,  Etna,  there  are 
vast  quantities  of  lava,  poured  at  one  time  and  an- 
other out  of  the  mountain.  The  lava  from  one  great 
eruption  flowed  down  into  the  valley  of  the  River 
Simeto,  filling  up  its  channel  for  some  distance,  and 


Rivers.  231 


passing  in  great  masses  to  the  other  side.  This 
particular  outbreak  is  believed  to  have  taken  place 
in  the  year  1603.  In  the  course  of  about  two  cen- 
turies the  river  cut  for  itself,  through  this  lava — a 
peculiarly  hard  and  firm  kind, — a  passage,  from  forty 
to  fifty  feet  in  depth,  and  in  parts  several  hundred 
feet  wide. 

The  mighty  Niagara  Fall  must  have  been  for  ages 
past  slowly  eating  its  way  backwards  in  the  rocks 
over  which  it  flows;  so  that  the  spot  where  the  fall 
now  takes  place  is  not  the  same  spot  where  it  used 
to  take  place.  This  is  more  or  less  what  happens 
with  all  water-falls,  and  certainly  not  least  so  with 
the  great  falls  of  the  Niagara. 

A  good  many  attempts  have  been  made  to  fix  the 
rate  at  which  the  Niagara  works  its  way  backward. 
One  supposes  it  to  be  at  the  speed  of  a  foot  each 
year,  while  another  suggests  that  it  may  be  only 
three  feet  in  each  century.  But  careful  observation 
alone,  through  long  periods,  could  supply  us  with 
any  means  of  truly  answering  this  question;  and 
careful  observation  in  such  matters  is  but  a  thing 
of  yesterday.  Even  if  the  present  rate  of  wear 
were  clearly  known,  this  would  form  no  safe  guide 
as  to  the  past.  At  every  step  in  the  path  of  the 
retreating  flood  the  character  of  the  materials 


232  The  World's  Foundations. 

to  be  worn  away  must  have  varied,  their  hardness 
or  softness  greatly  affecting  the  speed  of  their 
destruction. 

That  this  work  does  actually  go  on  may,  however, 
be  plainly  seen.  Every  year  there  are  changes  in 
the  shape  of  the  channel;  and  huge  rock-fragments 
are  being  perpetually  broken  off  and  dashed  into 
the  foaming  waters  below. 

When  speaking  of  the  work  of  rivers  in  carv- 
ing out  valleys,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  a 
river  acts  in  two  ways.  First,  there  is  its  regular 
daily  work  in  its  narrow  channel,  lasting  usually 
all  the  year  round.  Secondly,  there  are  the 
flood-times,  when  the  river  spreads  over  a  much 
wider  bed,  and  often  does  much  damage.  In 
England  such  floods,  though  injurious,  are  com- 
paratively quiet;  but  in  some  countries  river- 
floods  are  sudden,  widespread,  and  fearfully  de- 
structive. 

A  river  may  therefore  be  said  to  have  two  beds — 
its  narrow  constant  bed,  and  its  wide  occasional  bed. 
The  latter  is  called  often  an  alluvial  plain.  When 
we  talk  of  a  river  overflowing  its  banks,  we  really 
mean  that  it  is  running  in  its  wide  bed  instead  of 
its  narrow  one. 


Rivers.  233 


The  work  of  wasting  and  wearing  away,  which  is 
done  by  rivers  and  torrents  and  cascades  on  a  large 
scale,  is  done  by  every  little  brook  and  streamlet  on 
a  small  scale.  If  rivers  carve  out  valleys,  brooks 
hollow  out  dells.  The  materials  which  are  crum- 
bled away  in  the  making  of  these  valleys  and  dells, 
are  borne  seaward — first  carried  by  the  brooks 
down  to  the  rivers,  and  then  carried  by  the  rivers 
down  to  the  ocean.  The  amount  of  land  thus 
torn  yearly  from  the  continents  is  past  calculation. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

WATERS. 
"This  great  and  wide  sea." — PSA.  civ.  25. 

NOT  rivers  and  streams  alone  do  the  work  of  wast- 
ing away  land.  Heavy  rains,  underground  watei- 
flows,  ocean-waves  and  tides  and  currents — all  take 
an  active  share  in  the  same. 

Even  in  England  long-continued  rains  may  cause 
much  material  to  be  carried  off — witness  the  brown 
muddy  streams  seen  to  flow  at  such  a  time,  the 
brown  tint  coming  simply  from  the  earth  which  the 
water  is  stealing  from  the  land. 

But  it  is  in  foreign  countries  that  the  full  effects 
of  rain  may  be  observed. 

At  Chirapoonjee  in  Bengal,  high  up  among  the 
mountains,  the  rainfall  is  tremendous.  Thirty  inches 
have  been  known  to  fall  in  twenty-four  hours,  and 
through  the  whole  year  the  amount  is  more  than 
twenty  times  as  much  as  that  which  falls  in  one 


Waters.  235 


year  in  England.  The  deluge  of  water  down  the 
mountain-sides,  during  the  rains,  destroys  vegeta- 
tion, bears  away  soil,  and  makes  a  wild  waste  of 
what  might  otherwise  be  a  richly-wooded  land. 

In  another  part,  near  the  Sikkim  Mountains,  the 
downpour  of  water  in  the  rainy  season  is  such  that 
rivers  have  been  known  to  rise  twelve  feet  in  twelve 
hours.  The  rush  of  torrents,  the  sound  of  falling 
trees,  the  crash  of  boulders  dashed  one  against  an- 
other by  stormy  cataracts,  are  described  as  some- 
times continuing  night  and  day  unceasingly. 

The  sudden  and  violent  rains  of  the  tropics  thus 
tear  away  earth,  and  grind  rocks  and  stones  into 
powder,  far  more  rapidly  than  the  rains  of  temper- 
ate lands  can  do. 

There  are  streams  and  rivers  underground  as  well 
as  above  ground.  When  such  a  stream  breaks  out 
of  the  side  of  a  hill,  we  call  it  a  "spring."  Under- 
ground channels  and  caverns  are  hollowed  out  by 
the  flowing  waters,  with  the  help  of  the  Carbonic 
Acid  Gas  which  they  contain.  All  rain-water  which 
does  not  run  to  the  ocean  through  streams  and 
rivers  sinks  into  the  ground,  joins  the  waters  there, 
and  in  time  generally  finds  its  way  to  the  ocean. 

The  direction   taken  by  underground  streams  is 


236  The  World's  Foundations. 

much  affected  by  the  kind  of  soil.  Loose  soft  grav- 
elly or  sandy  soils  allow  water  free  passage,  but 
tough  clay  or  hard  rock  act  as  barriers. 

Sometimes  a  large  reservoir  of  water  will  collect 
over  one  stratum  of  rock  or  clay  and  under  another, 
unable  to  find  an  outlet.  If  the  water  has  found 
its  way  there  from  a  greater  height,  the  pressure 
of  other  water  trying  to  flow  in  from  behind  will 
make  it  ready  to  take  advantage  of  any  opening 
that  may  occur. 

In  such  cases  as  this  wells  are  often  made.  Men 
bore  down  from  above,  lowering  a  slender  tube  as 
they  bore,  through  several  kinds  of  soils,  till  the 
said  tube  passes  through  the  upper  clay  and  reaches 
the  imprisoned  water.  Instantly  the  water  rushes 
up  the  tube,  glad,  as  it  were,  to  find  an  outlet. 

Wells  formed  thus  are  called  "  Artesian,"  be- 
cause the  plan  was  first  tried  in  Artois.  They  are 
often  found  useful  in  supplying  water  to  a  neigh- 
borhood, where  the  amount  within  reach  would 
otherwise  be  scanty. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell,  with  exactness,  where 
these  reservoirs  are  without  boring,  and  many  at- 
tempts have  therefore  been  made  in  vain.  In  other 
instances,  however,  the  toil  has  been  amply  repaid. 

For  the  success  of  such  a  well,  it  is  needful  not 


Waters.  237 


only  that  there  should  be  the  reservoir  of  impris- 
oned water,  but  also  that  the  water  should  have 
flowed  down  from  a  higher  level,  the  way  by  which 
it  has  come  being  still  open.  If  you  were  to  make 
your  boring  at  the  top  of  a  hill,  with  no  higher 
ground  near,  then,  even  though  the  tube  should 
reach  an  underground  reservoir,  no  water  would  rise 
since  there  would  be  no  pressure  of  water  behind 
to  force  it  to  do  so. 

In  a  well  bored  at  Tours,  the  rush  of  water  was 
so  great  that  it  rose,  like  a  fountain,  to  the  height 
of  thirty-two  feet  above  ground.  In  another  at 
Grenoble,  none  appeared  till  the  tube  had  reached 
a  depth  of  two  thousand  feet.  Then  it  came  in 
good  earnest — soft  warm  water,  pouring  steadily 
up  from  lower  regions,  at  the  rate  of  half  a  million 
gallons  in  each  twenty-four  hours.  Such  wells  have 
sometimes  been  successful  even  in  deserts. 

Occasionally  the  flow  of  water  is  found  after  a 
while  to  lessen,  proving  that  the  reservoir  is  not  a 
very  large  one. 

All  around  the  shores  of  the  British  Isles,  not  to 
speak  of  other  lands,  the  ocean-waves  are  beating, 
beating  perpetually,  wearing  away  her  cliffs,  eating 
into  her  shores. 


238  The   World's  Foundations. 

Just  as,  with  the  rivers,  the  chief  waste  is  on  the 
hill-sides,  and  not  on  level  plains,  so  also  with  the 
sea.  The  waves  have  comparatively  little  power 
to  wash  away  the  soft  flat  sands.  It  is  upon  the 
bold  cliffs — not  only  cliffs  of  soft  chalk,  but  of  hard 
rock  also — that  their  power  is  chiefly  shown. 

There  is  much  less  wear  and  tear  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean coasts,  where  the  tides  are  so  slight  as  to  be 
almost  nothing,  than  on  British  shores,  where  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  tides  are  great.  Yet,  even  in 
the  Mediterranean  the  waters  are  doing  their  work, 
and  every  storm  leaves  its  traces. 

In  the  Shetland  Islands,  exposed  as  they  are  to 
the  full  force  of  the  broad  Atlantic,  the  action  of 
the  waves  is  forcibly  displayed  in  the  fantastic  rock- 
groupings,  the  caves  and  arches,  the  columns  and 
pinnacles,  the  needles  and  obelisks,  formed  by  the 
wear  of  the  hard  rocks  under  the  incessant  beating 
of  the  surges.  Much  the  same  may  also  be  seen 
along  parts  of  the  exposed  west  coast  of  Scotland. 

At  the  Bell -Rock  Lighthouse,  the  wonderful 
strength  of  ocean-waves  is  seen  perhaps  as  clearly 
as  anywhere.  Stones  over  two  tons  in  weight  have 
often  been  flung  upon  the  rock  by  the  billows  in 
their  wild  gambols.  While  the  lighthouse  was  be- 
ing built,  six  large  granite  blocks  were  placed  upon 


Waters.  239 


the  reef  ready  for  use,  and  all  the  six  were  heaved 
by  the  waves  over  a  ledge  to  a  distance  of  more 
than  twelve  paces. 

On  the  east  coast  of  England,  the  wear  of  land  is 
markedly  shown.  There  were,  once  upon  a  time, 
certain  Yorkshire  towns  or  villages,  named  Auburn, 
Hartburn,  and  Hyde,  but  they  are  to  be  seen  no 
longer.  Sandbanks,  overflowed  by  the  sea,  lie  over 
their  former  sites. 

Along  Norfolk  shores,  the  chalk-cliffs  are  crum- 
bling steadily  away  before  the  waves.  In  the  year 
1805,  an  inn  was  built  in  Sherringham,  at  a  certain 
distance  from  the  cliff-edge.  It  was  known  well 
that  the  sea,  eating  away  the  land,  must  in  time 
approach  the  inn.  Observations  had  been  carefully 
made,  and  the  wearing  away  was  believed  to  be  at 
the  rate  of  less  than  one  yard  each  year.  It  was 
calculated,  therefore,  that  the  inn  might  be  con- 
sidered safe  for  seventy  years  to  come;  yet  a  very 
short  time  proved  this  calculation  to  be  wrong.  In 
1805,  full  fifty  yards  lay  clear  between  the  house  and 
the  sea.  In  1829,  only  fourteen  years  later,  seven- 
teen yards  of  land  were  already  swept  away,  and 
only  a  small  garden  divided  the  inn  from  the  devour- 
ing ocean.  An  instance  this  of  how  easily  mistakes 
may  be  made  in  any  such  attempted  calculations. 


240  The   World's  Foundations. 

Also  in  Norfolk  whole  towns  have  been  demol- 
ished. Ancient  Cromer  lies  beneath  the  Ocean. 
Shipden,  Wimpwell,  Eccles,  have  been  slowly  swal- 
lowed. One  town  and  another,  on  the  east  coast, 
is  compelled  to  beat  a  gradual  retreat  before  the 
enemy,  building  more  and  more  inland,  yielding 
one  house  after  another  to  the  encroaching  waters. 

In  other  parts  the  same  is  seen, — markedly  so 
with  the  crumbling  white  chalk  cliffs  of  the  south 
coast  of  England. 

When  Queen  Elizabeth  reigned,  Brighton  was 
built  upon  the  same  belt  of  land,  where  now  the 
chain-pier  runs  out  into  deep  water.  Measures 
have  been  taken  to  check  these  inroads  of  the  sea; 
but  for  centuries  Brighton  went  backwards,  step  by 
step,  before  the  ocean. 

Between  Hastings  and  Eastbourne  the  shore-line 
has  long  receded  steadily  before  the  waves,  and  a 
haven  which  once  existed  in  Pevensey  Bay  is  now 
filled  up  with  shingle. 

In  some  parts  the  yearly  waste  has  been  as  much 
as  seven  feet  of  land.  At  the  neighboring  pro- 
montory, Beachey  Head,  a  great  fall  of  material 
took  place  in  1813, — a  mass  of  chalk,  three  hundred 
feet  long  and  seventy  broad,  descending  with  a 
mighty  crash  to  the  shore  below. 


Waters.  241 


Somewhat  to  the  west  of  Newhaven,  there  are 
remains  of  an  ancient  earthwork,  supposed  to  have 
been  British.  The  greater  part  of  this  entrench- 
ment has  been  carried  away  by  the  waves.  Two 
other  ancient  camps,  one  near  Seaford,  and  one 
near  Eastbourne,  have  been  in  like  manner  partly 
destroyed. 

It  is  said  that  during  some  eighty  years,  no  less 
than  twenty  distinct  inundations  of  parts  of  the 
coast  of  Sussex  took  place,  permanently  overwhelm- 
ing tracts  of  land,  which  varied  in  extent  from 
twenty  to  four  hundred  acres. 

Examples  more  or  less  like  in  kind  might  be 
brought  forward,  as  to  the  coasts  of  Holland,  as  to 
other  European  countries,  as  to  America.  But 
enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  power  of  the 
ocean,  now  and  through  ages  past,  in  wearing  away 
firm  land. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
DELTAS. 

"He  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas,  and  established  it  upon  the 
floods." — PSA.  xxiv.  2. 

THE  wearing  away  of  rock  and  earth  is  not  the  only 
work  done  by  water  in  the  world.  For  while  it 
pulls  down,  it  also  builds  up;  while  it  wastes,  it  also 
heaps  together.  The  material  which  it  steals  from 
the  land  in  one  place,  it  often  adds  to  the  land  in 
another  place. 

One  has  well  said  of  a  mountain-torrent:  "It  lays 
down  what  it  will  remove,  and  removes  what  it  has 
laid  down."  This,  which  is  true  of  every  torrent,  is 
true  of  all  streams  and  rivers,  nay,  of  the  very  ocean 
itself. 

The  work  of  building  up  land  is  most  plainly  to 
be  seen  at  the  mouths  of  rivers.  Deposits  on  the 
ocean-bottom,  at  a  great  distance  from  shore,  doubt- 


Deltas.  243 


less  take  place  constantly,  but  we  cannot  see  this 
for  ourselves;  whereas  the  growth  of  land  at  a  river's 
mouth  may  easily  be  observed. 

When  a  river,  laden  with  sand  and  earth  which 
it  has  stolen  from  the  land,  reaches  the  sea,  the 
speed  of  the  flowing  water  is  suddenly  checked  by 
the  incoming  waves.  The  weight  which  the  river 
was  able  to  carry,  while  moving  quickly,  it  can  no 
longer  support,  and  sand  and  earth  sink  to  the  bot- 
tom, forming  there  in  layers. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  sand-bars  or  mud-banks 
are  made.  In  the  case  of  a  small  river,  the  deposit 
takes  place  very  near  the  shore,  sometimes  almost 
choking  up  the  mouth  of  the  stream.  The  larger 
and  more  powerful  the  river,  the  farther  out  to 
sea  will  the  materials  be  carried  before  they  are 
dropped. 

This  is  the  way  also  in  which  river-deltas  are 
made.  The  name  Delta  is  given  to  the  tract  about 
the  mouth  of  a  large  river,  because  of  its  likeness 
in  shape  to  the  Greek  letter  of  that  name  A.  The 
river,  after  flowing  long  as  a  single  stream,  divides 
into  two  or  more  streams,  branching  off  and  reach- 
ing the  sea  by  different  channels. 

The  low  lands  lying  between  these  different  chan- 
nels have  been  slowly  built  up  by  the  river  out  of 


244  The  World's  Foundations. 

the  materials  which  it  has  stolen  on  its  course. 
The  whole  of  these  lands,  from  the  spot  where  first 
the  river  separates  into  two  down  to  the  ocean,  is 
called  the  Delta. 

Many  changes  take  place  in  the  deltas  of  great 
rivers.  Now  one  arm  and  now  another  becomes 
quite  choked  up  with  sand  or  mud,  and  the  water 
ceases  to  flow  there,  taking  to  another  channel. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  deltas.  First,  those 
which  are  formed  by  rivers  flowing  into  lakes.  Sec- 
ondly, those  which  are  formed  by  rivers  flowing  into 
inland  seas,  where  there  is  almost  no  tide.  Thirdly, 
those  which  are  formed  by  rivers  flowing  into  the 
ocean  where  there  are  full  tides.  The  first  two  are 
much  alike,  except  that  the  kinds  of  animal-remains 
found  in  them  differ;  being  in  the  one  case  those  of 
fresh-water  creatures,  and  in  the  other  case  those 
of  salt-water  creatures. 

The  Rhone,  passing  through  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
gives  us  an  example  of  a  Lake-Delta. 

Building  up  of  new  land  in  the  lake  has  continued 
there  through  ages.  Laden  with  sediment  torn 
from  the  crumbling  mountains,  the  river  enters  the 
lake  at  one  end,  drops  its  material  layer  upon  layer, 
passes  through  the  whole  length  of  the  lake,  and 


Deltas.  245 


flows  out  at  the  other  end,  pure  and  clear,  having 
left  a  load  of  mud  behind. 

The  land  thus  formed  grows  steadily,  reaching 
farther  and  farther  into  the  lake.  A  certain  town, 
Port  Vallais  by  name,  which  in  the  days  of  the 
Romans  was  close  to  the  water's  edge,  is  now  one 
mile  and  a  half  inland,  showing  that  about  one  mile 
and  a  half  of  land  has  been  built  by  the  river  in  the 
course  of  the  last  eight  hundred  years.  Before  that 
date  five  or  six  miles  of  the  delta  had  been  built. 

The  Rhone  does  not  long  remain  pure  after  its 
passage  through  the  Lake  of  Geneva.  It  is  speed- 
ily joined  by  the  Arve,  heavily  laden  with  sand  and 
other  materials  from  the  glaciers  of  Mont  Blanc. 
More  rivers  join  her  later,  bearing  sandy  and  muddy 
donations  from  the  Alps  of  Dauphiny.  When  at 
length  the  Rhone  enters  the  Mediterranean,  its 
powerful  stream  stains  the  blue  waters  for  a  dis- 
tance of  six  or  seven  miles,  as  it  drops  once  more 
its  later  burden,  this  time  in  the  sea. 

The  Rivers  Po  and  Adige,  flowing  into  the  Adri- 
atic, give  an  example  of  rapid  land-building.  From 
fear  of  their  inundations  at  flood-seasons,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country  have  long  built  embank- 
ments to  close  them  in.  The  rivers,  being  thus 
unable  to  spread  themselves  over  their  wider  beds, 


246  The  World's  Foundations. 

and  to  make  deposits  on  the  low  lands  around,  are 
compelled  to  carry  nearly  all  their  sediment  to 
the  sea. 

The  growth  of  land  there  is  consequently  much 
more  rapid  than   if  there  were   no  such  embank 
ments.     It  would  have  been  more  so  still,  but  for 
the  fact  that  the  shores  are,  and  have  long  been, 
slowly  sinking. 

Even  thus,  however,  the  increase  of  new  river- 
built  land  along  the  coast,  for  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  miles,  has  been  within  the  last  two  thou- 
sand years  as  much  as  from  two  to  twenty  miles  in 
breadth.  The  town  Adria,  which  in  the  time  of 
Augustus  bordered  the  sea,  now  stands  some  twen- 
ty Italian  miles  inland. 

The  delta  of  the  Nile  is  one  of  slow  growth,  but 
it  may  have  been  much  faster  in  early  ages,  before 
it  reached  so  far  out  into  the  sea  as  to  be  swept  by 
the  strong  current  which  coasts  the  north  of  Africa. 
Much  newly-formed  land  is  from  time  to  time  car- 
ried away  by  this  stream;  and  here  again,  as  in 
North  Italy,  the  gradual  sinking  of  the  shores  pre- 
vents the  more  rapid  apparent  growth  of  the  delta. 

Moreover,  although  the  Nile  brings  much  mud 
and  sand  from  the  interior  of  Africa,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  material  is  dropped  upon  Egypt  in 


Deltas.  247 


the  flood-seasons.  But  for  this  Egypt  would  be  a 
barren  land  indeed.  Each  flood-season,  when  the 
river  overflows  the  flat  lands  around,  it  places  a 
new  thin  film  of  earth  upon  the  layers  of  centuries 
before,  thus  ever  deepening  the  soil.  Then,  bear- 
ing on  only  the  lightest  and  finest  particles  through 
the  rest  of  its  course,  it  reaches  the  ocean,  and 
there  drops  them  in  some  part  of  the  many-armed 
delta,  or  carries  them  yet  further,  to  discolor  the 
blue  Mediterranean  through  thirty  or  forty  miles. 

The  Nile  stands  alone  among  rivers  in  the  singu- 
lar fact  that,  during  the  last  fifteen  hundred  miles 
of  its  journey,  it  is  joined  by  no  tributary  stream. 
The  delta  of  the  Nile  is  at  its  base,  or  where  it 
joins  the  sea,  about  two  hundred  miles  wide. 

Two  great  Indian  rivers,  the  Ganges  and  the 
Brahmapootra,  offer  another  good  instance  of  del- 
ta-building. 

Coming  from  almost  opposite  directions,  they 
meet  and  mingle,  so  that  one  vast  delta  serves 
them  both — in  size  more  than  double  that  of  the 
Nile.  This  "great  delta  of  Bengal,"  as  it  is  called, 
is  in  part  made  up  of  a  bewildering  maze  of  large 
and  small  streams,  some  filled  with  salt  water  from 
the  inflowing  sea,  and  some  with  fresh  water  from 
the  outflowing  rivers.  The  portion  known  as  the 


248  The   World's  Foundations. 

Sunderbunds,  a  tiger-infested  wilderness,  is  alone 
as  large  as  Wales. 

Perpetual  changes  take  place  in  this  immense 
delta.  One  season  is  a  time  of  floods,  and  masses 
of  new  land  are  swept  out  to  sea.  Again,  the 
ocean  rushing  in,  carves  out  fresh  channels  in  the 
low  muddy  banks.  Or  new  islands  are  rapidly 
formed,  only  to  be  as  rapidly  destroyed.  In  one 
spot,  no  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  square 
miles  of  delta-land  were  carried  away  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years. 

Early  in  the  present  century,  a  new  island  was 
formed,  about  four  miles  out  to  sea,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Hooghly — one  of  the  channels  in  this  delta. 
It  grew  to  a  length  of  two  miles  and  a  half,  and 
houses  were  built  upon  it.  In  1823  there  came  a 
tremendous  gale,  and  the  island  was  cut  into 
two  smaller  islands.  A  few  years  more,  and  the 
former  island  had  been  worn  away  to  a  mere  low 
sand-bank,  about  half  a  mile  long. 

These  two  great  rivers  are,  in  fact,  ever  build- 
ing up  new  land  in  and  about  the  delta,  while  the 
ocean  is  ever  seeking  to  destroy  that  which  the 
rivers  have  built. 

One  more  instance  of  a  delta  may  be  given  in 
that  of  the  mighty  Mississippi.  This  great  stream, 


Deltas.  249 


if  measured  with  its  windings,  has  a  length  of  three 
thousand  miles,  and  the  land  which  it  drains  is  over 
half  the  size  of  all  Europe. 

The  Delta  of  the  Mississippi  is  about  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  miles  across  in  one  direction,  and 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  across  in  the 
other.  It  covers  more  than  twelve  thousand  square 
miles. 

The  river  travels  chiefly  in  great  bends,  making 
sand-banks  at  each  bend;  often  changing  its  course; 
frequently  building  up  new  land,  and  as  frequently 
washing  away  what  it  has  built.  Enormous  quan- 
tities of  trees  are  carried  down  the  stream,  and 
dropped  in  the  delta;  and  no  doubt  many  ani- 
mal-remains also  are  imbedded  there  in  the  low 
banks.  The  great  force  of  the  river  bears  it  on 
as  a  fresh-water  stream  to  a  distance  of  more 
than  twelve  miles  into  the  ocean. 

Some  attempts  have  been  made  to  calculate  or 
to  guess  at  the  time  probably  occupied  in  the 
forming  of  this  vast  delta. 

A  certain  quantity  of  sediment  was  fixed  upon 
as  that  which  the  river  was  supposed  to  bring  down 
each  year  to  the  delta.  It  was  also  supposed  that 
this  quantity  had  always  been  about  the  same, 
every  year,  through  centuries  and  ages  past.  It 


250  The  World's  Foundations. 

was  then  calculated  that — if  this  quantity  were 
correct,  and  if  the  amount  of  sediment  had  always 
been  equal — the  delta  must  have  taken  about  sixty- 
seven  thousand  years  to  form. 

A  little  later,  however,  it  was  found  that  the 
quantity  of  material  brought  down  yearly  by  the 
river  was  very  much  more  than  had  been  first  im- 
agined. So  the  calculation  had  to  be  made  over 
again;  and  this  time  it  was  decided  that  the  delta- 
lands  might  have  been  built  in  the  course  of  thirty- 
three  thousand  five  hundred  years. 

Whether  these  figures  will  have  to  be  halved 
again  remains  to  be  seen.  That  the  time  was 
long,  very  long,  appears  highly  probable.  But 
how  long  it  lasted  man  cannot  say. 

Indeed,  apart  from  other  difficulties  in  finding 
out  the  age  of  a  delta-formation,  the  uncertainty 
as  to  how  far  land  thereabouts  may  have  risen  or 
sunk  in  past  ages  renders  almost  useless  any  such 
attempted  calculation. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  water-action,  a  lit- 
tle illustration  from  present  days  may  be  given,  in 
explanation  of  the  fossil  rain-drop  marks  and  fossil 
footprints  so  often  mentioned  in  earlier  chapters. 

On  the  borders  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  in  Nova 


Deltas.  251 


Scotia,  there  are  broad  mud-flats  lying  within 
reach  of  the  tides. 

The  rise  of  the  tide  there  amounts  to  no  less 
than  fifty  feet.  Parts  of  these  mud-flats  are  cov- 
ered and  uncovered  every  day;  but  other  parts, 
farther  off  from  the  sea,  are  only  reached  by  the 
highest  spring-tides,  and  for  a  week,  or  even  a 
fortnight  at  a  time,  they  remain  dry  and  untouched 
by  the  waves. 

It  may  be  easily  imagined  how,  in  these  upper 
reaches  of  mud,  the  marks  of  rain-drops  or  the  foot- 
prints of  passing  animals,  if  received  immediately 
after  a  high  spring-tide  while  the  mud  is  still  soft, 
would  have  time  to  harden  into  a  permanent  shape 
before  the  next  high  tide  came,  a  fortnight  later,  to 
deposit  another  layer  of  sand. 

A  traveller,  passing  the  spot  in  question,  after- 
wards described  the  mud  near  the  sea  as  being  too 
soft  to  retain  impressions,  and  the  mud  far  away 
from  the  sea  as  being  too  hard  to  receive  them.  But 
between  these  two  he  discovered  a  belt  of  soft  mud, 
just  of  the  right  consistency  to  take  and  to  keep 
markings.  On  splitting  open  slabs  of  this  mud, 
he  found  prints  or  casts  of  rain-drops  hardened 
into  lower  layers  of  the  mud,  afterwards  covered 
over  by  later  sand-droppings  out  of  the  waters. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

GLACIERS. 

"He  casteth  forth  His  ice  like  morsels;  who  can  stand  before  His 
cold?"— PSA.  cxlvii.  17. 

THE  work  which  Glaciers  are  believed  to  have  done 
in  past  times  has  been  already  more  than  once 
described. 

In  the  present  chapter  we  have  not  so  much  to 
think  about  any  one  particular  Ice-Age,  as  to 
gather  from  glaciers  and  icebergs  of  the  present 
day  certain  facts  which  may  help  us  to  a  clearer 
understanding  of  the  past. 

A  glacier,  as  before  explained,  is  simply  a  river 
of  ice;  not  fed,  like  a  river  of  water,  by  rains  and 
springs,  but  by  masses  of  snow  and  freezing  mist  in 
high  mountain-regions.  Also,  just  as  a  common 
river  is  fed  by  lesser  streams,  so  a  large  glacier  is 
fed  by  lesser  glaciers. 

The  flow  of  a  glacier  is  in  many  respects  like  that 


Glaciers.  253 


of  a  river.  It  usually  follows  the  course  of  a  valley. 
It  travels  faster  in  summer  than  in  winter,  and 
nearly  as  fast  by  night  as  by  day.  In  the  ice  of  a 
glacier,  as  in  the  water  of  a  river,  the  movement  is 
quicker  at  the  surface  than  down  below,  and  quicker 
at  the  middle  than  at  the  sides.  The  reason  for 
this  is  that  the  bottom  and  sides,  both  of  a  water- 
river  and  of  an  ice-river,  are  retarded  or  kept  back 
by  the  rubbing  of  the  bed  and  banks. 

Moreover,  a  glacier  is  like  an  ordinary  river  in  the 
manner  in  which  it  suits  itself  to  the  shape  of  its 
bed,  narrowing  or  widening  according  to  need.  A 
glacier  is  known  to  spread  itself  over  a  bed  two 
thousand  yards  wide,  and  then  to  press  through  a 
gorge  only  nine  hundred  yards  wide,  still  continu- 
ing its  steady  onward  march.  A  glacier  will  pass 
round  a  bend,  like  a  river;  and  like  a  river  also 
it  has  its  occasional  cataracts  or  ice-falls,  where 
masses  of  ice,  in  slow  succession,  plunge  over  a 
precipice.  A  glacier  is  however,  unlike  a  river,  in 
the  fact  that  it  not  only  moves  downhill  and  along 
level  ground,  but  sometimes  for  a  space  will  even 
travel  up  a  gentle  slope. 

All  these  particulars  make  the  subject  of  glaciers 
a  mysterious  one.  A  great  many  theories  are  put 
forward  to  explain  them. 


254  The  World's  Foundations. 

Some  think  that  the  onward  motion  of  glacier-ice 
is  caused  by  the  earth's  attraction;  just  as  water  is 
thus  caused  to  run  downhill.  Some  think  that  it 
moves  only  because  the  ice  behind  keeps  pressing 
it  on.  Others  think  that  the  heat  of  the  sun 
causes  it  to  travel  along  the  ground. 

Ice  is  in  a  measure  elastic,  not  hard  and  stiff  like 
rock;  and  it  is  believed  that  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  masses  of  ice  break  and  freeze  together  again 
has  somewhat  to  do  with  the  explanation  of  the 
mystery. 

Icebergs  are  large  masses  or  mountains  of  ice, 
which  have  snapped  off  from  the  bottom  or  foot  of 
some  enormous  glacier,  and  have  floated  away  on 
the  sea. 

Icebergs  are  often  of  a  very  great  size.  Whatever 
quantity  of  ice  is  seen  to  rise  above  the  water  in  an 
iceberg,  there  is  always  about  eight  times  as  much 
below  the  water.  You  will  understand  this  better 
if  you  float  a  small  lump  of  ice  in  a  basin,  and 
notice  what  a  small  proportion  of  the  whole  lump 
remains  out  of  the  water. 

The  weight  and  force  of  these  floating  ice-moun- 
tains is  sometimes  terrific.  Many  a  ship,  caught 
between  two  of  them,  or  between  an  iceberg  and  a 


W.  Foundations. 


i'LOATING  1CEBEKG. 


p.  254. 


Glaciers.  255 


grounded  ice-field,  has  been  crushed,  as  an  egg- 
shell may  be  crushed  between  two  fingers  of  a 
man's  hand. 

In  England  and  Scotland  glaciers  no  longer  exist. 
They  are  found  on  the  high  mountains  of  the  Con- 
tinent, in  the  northern  parts  of  Europe  and  North 
America,  and  also  in  Antarctic  lands. 

One  of  the  principal  Swiss  glacier-districts  is  that 
of  Mont  Blanc.  The  vast  snow-fields  of  the  summit 
give  rise  to  glacier  after  glacier,  creeping  slowly 
down  each  chief  valley,  the  long  tongues  of  ice 
reaching  far  below  the  usual  "  snow-line"  ;  and  when 
at  length  they  melt,  sending  on  rushing  streams 
laden  with  earth  and  stones. 

The  stones,  many  of  them  scratched  and  scored 
from  being  dragged  along  over  the  rocky  bed  of  the 
glacier,  are  dropped  in  heaps  near  its  end,  forming 
the  "terminal  moraine";  but  the  muddy  turbid 
stream  flows  down  the  mountain-side,  until  it  joins 
some  ocean-bound  river.  The  north-western  gla- 
ciers of  the  Mont  Blanc  district  send  their  streams 
into  the  River  Arve,  spoken  of  in  the  last  chapter, 
while  the  south-eastern  feed  the  Doire. 

The  great  Mer  de  Glace,  or  Sea  of  Ice,  so  often 
described  by  travellers  to  Mont  Blanc,  is  made  up 


256  The  World's  Foundations. 

of  several  of  these  glaciers  in  the  upper  part  of 
their  course.  The  ice  of  the  Col  du  Geant,  travel- 
ling slowly  down  the  Mer  de  Glace,  does  not  reach 
the  further  end  in  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years. 

Some  of  the  Swiss  glaciers  are  as  much  as  six 
hundred  feet  deep,  twenty  or  thirty  miles  long, 
and  two  or  three  miles  wide;  but  this  is  not 
common. 

After  all,  the  grandest  of  Swiss  glaciers  sink  into 
nothing,  when  we  leave  them  behind  and  wander  in 
thought  to  the  dreary  wastes  of  Greenland.  There 
it  is  that  we  may  learn  most  about  the  possibility 
of  a  past  Ice- Age  upon  the  earth. 

Little  of  Greenland  is  known  beyond  the  strip  of 
habitable  ground  near  the  sea-shore.  For  with  this 
exception,  the  whole  great  country  is  a  lonely  wil- 
derness, buried  deep  beneath  massive  glaciers  and 
perpetual  snows.  Few  mountain-peaks  rise  out  of 
the  vast  bewildering  sea  of  whiteness. 

Yet  even  in  that  seemingly  dead  and  ice-bound 
land  God's  forces  are  at  work.  Even  in  that  awful 
waste  of  lifeless  desolation  there  is  perpetual  change. 
Not  alone  in  the  fearful  storms  which  sweep  across 
the  level  expanse,  filling  the  air  with  blinding  snow. 
Apart  from  this,  the  change  goes  on.  As  in  Swiss 


Glaciers.  257 


mountains  on  a  small  scale,  so  in  Greenland  on  a 
gigantic  scale,  glaciers  creep  out  from  beneath  the 
snow-masses,  and  make  their  way  to  the  ocean, 
there  sending  masses  of  ice  southward,  to  melt  in 
warmer  waters.  And  the  winds  from  the  south  car- 
rying vapors  north,  these  vapors  freeze  and  descend 
as  snow  or  frozen  mist  upon  the  wide  plains;  thus 
keeping  up  the  supply  which  through  the  glaciers  is 
ever  draining  away.  So  the  circulation  of  water, 
which  goes  on  incessantly  through  all  the  world, 
goes  on  also  in  even  those  far-north  regions. 

The  great  Humboldt  glacier  of  -Greenland  pours 
like  other  ice-rivers  down  its  gorge,  straight  into  the 
sea;  and  ends  abruptly  in  a  massive  wall  or  cliff  of 
ice,  some  sixty  miles  broad,  and  three  hundred  feet 
high.  But  this  is  its  height  above  the  water  only. 
How  deep  it  descends  below  the  water  is  not 
known. 

For  these  Greenland  glaciers  push  their  way  out 
along  the  bed  of  the  ocean,  to  a  distance  of  sev- 
eral miles,  into  deeper  and  deeper  water,  holding 
toughly  together,  and  resisting  the  buoying  up 
tendency  of  the  sea.  The  mass  of  the  glacier  can- 
not rise,  since  ice,  though  to  a  certain  degree  elastic, 
is  unable  to  bend.  When  a  certain  depth  is  reached, 
the  strain  becomes  too  great  for  further  resistance. 


258  The  World's  Foundations. 

At  this  point  the  strong  upward  pressure  of  the 
water  causes  huge  masses  of  ice  to  split  off  and 
spring  to  the  surface,  making  the  ocean  far  around 
to  seethe  and  foam  like  a  cauldron  of  boiling  water. 
These  huge  masses  floating  southward  are  called 
Icebergs. 

In  Switzerland  the  glaciers  bear  long  trains  of 
debris,  dropped  upon,  them  from  the  crumbling 
peaks  and  cliffs. 

Such  moraines  are  far  more  rare  in  Greenland 
glaciers.  The  whole  country  is  so  completely  buried 
beneath  masses  of  snow,  as  to  leave  few  peaks  bare. 
Near  the  shore,  indeed,  the  strewing  of  boulders  on 
either  side  of  the  glacier  increases;  yet  the  great 
width  of  the  glaciers  makes  it  comparatively  a  small 
matter.  Of  all  the  icebergs  which  break  away  from 
the  foot  of  such  a  glacier,  only  those  coming  from 
the  extreme  left  or  right  would  be  likely  to  bear 
any  large  blocks.  It  is,  however,  not  impossible 
that  icebergs  from  the  middle  might  have  stones 
or  rocks  frozen  in  underneath  them. 

That  many  icebergs  do  carry  heavy  weights  of 
material  is  undeniable.  The  traveller,  Scoresby, 
who  saw  some  five  hundred  icebergs  in  about  69 
and  70  degrees  north  latitude,  describes  many  of 


Glaciers.  259 


them  as  bearing  great  loads  of  earth  and  rock, 
amounting  in  weight  to  fifty  thousand  or  even  one 
hundred  thousand  tons.  Some  of  these  bergs  were 
a  mile  round;  and  many  of  them  most  likely  came 
from  Spitzbergen,  which,  like  Greenland,  has  its 
great  glaciers. 

Any  rocks  or  stones  carried  off  by  icebergs  are 
necessarily  dropped  upon  the  ocean-floor,  when  the 
iceberg  melts. 

The  ocean-floor  is  not  a  mere  flat  plain,  but  con- 
sists, like  the  continents,  of  mountains,  hills,  table- 
lands, valleys,  and  lower  levels.  So  it  is  easily  un- 
derstood how  an  occasional  big  boulder,  brought 
from  mountains  far  away,  may  be  dropped  upon  a 
lofty  peak  or  height  beneath  the  ocean;  which 
boulder,  if  that  peak  should  ever  be  lifted  up  as  dry 
land,  might  offer  a  curious  appearance  to  geologists. 

Such  burdens  on  icebergs  of  the  south  Antarctic 
Ocean  seem  to  be  even  more  common  than  on  ice- 
bergs of  the  cold  northern  seas. 

There  is  yet  another  mode  by  which  stones  and 
rocks  are  scattered  over  the  ocean  bed,  and  by 
which  they  may  have  been  scattered,  in  ages  past, 
over  what  was  then  the  ocean  bed  and  is  now  dry 
land. 

Beneath  the  cliffs  on  Greenland  shores,  the  sur- 


26o  The   World's  Foundations. 

face  of  the  sea  freezes  into  a  broad  shelf  or  "  ice- 
foot." This  frozen  platform  is  often  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  broad,  and  rises  as  much  as  thirty  feet 
above  the  water.  It  is  attached  to  the  cliff,  and  it 
follows  every  bend  and  curve  in  the  coast-line.  In 
the  more  northern  latitudes  it  lasts  all  the  year 
round,  though  varying  in  amount;  while  in  the  more 
southern  parts  of  Greenland  it  breaks  up  and  dis- 
appears every  summer. 

As  the  short  summer,  with  its  partial  thaws,  ap- 
proaches, quantities  of  rocky  rubbish  fall  from  the 
cliffs  upon  this  ice-shelf.  Towards  the  north  it  is 
often  buried  beneath  the  collected  piles  of  year  after 
year,  and  is  only  relieved  by  the  occasional  break- 
ing off  and  floating  away  of  a  large  piece,  when 
loose  ice-floes  are  driven  sharply  against  it  by  winds 
and  currents. 

But  towards  the  south,  as  the  warmth  increases, 
the  ice-foot  is  gradually  demolished.  Large  por- 
tions heavily  laden,  are  separated  one  after  another, 
and  borne  away  by  the  tide;  each  slowly  thawing, 
and  dropping  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  its  pile  of 
debris. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

VOLCANOES. 

"  He  looketh  on  the  earth,  and  it  trembleth;  He  toucheth  the  hills,  and 
they  smoke." — PSA.  civ.  32. 

VOLCANOES  are  not  scattered  equally  over  all  the 
earth.  Here  or  there  one  such  mountain  may 
stand,  or  seem  to  stand,  alone;  but  more  com- 
monly they  are  arranged  in  groups  or  lines.  If, 
as  many  think,  volcanoes  are  the  outlets  or  safety- 
valves  to  vast  underground  reservoirs  of  fire,  it  is 
probable  that  one  such  reservoir  often  feeds  several 
volcanoes. 

A  volcano  is  generally  a  cone-shaped  mountain 
or  hill,  with  a  deep  hollow  or  basin  in  the  sum- 
mit called  a  Crater.  From  this  crater  there  are 
openings  leading  down  into  the  underground  fire- 
seas. 

The  cone  of  a  volcano  is  usually  built  out  of  the 
materials  thrown  up  from  underground.  Sometimes 


262  The   World's  Foundations. 

the  cone  is  made  of  cinders,  sometimes  of  tufa,  a 
substance  which  comes  from  the  hot  cinders  being 
wetted  with  heavy  rain,  sometimes  of  lava  or  melted 
rock;  but  more  commonly  of  all  three  mingled. 
A  new  cone  has  been  known  to  spring  into  being 
in  a  single  day.  Some  volcanoes  have  only  one 
cone  and  one  crater,  while  others  have  several 
cones  and  several  craters. 

Volcanoes  are  divided  into  three  classes — Active, 
Dormant,  and  Extinct.  The  active  volcanoes  are 
those  which,  from  time  to  time,  show  signs  of  life 
by  eruptions,  more  or  less  marked.  Extinct  or  dead 
volcanoes  are  those  which  have  so  long  remained 
quiet,  that  the  fire-seas  below  are  supposed  to  be 
exhausted.  But  this  is  seldom  a  matter  of  cer- 
tainty. Volcanoes,  thought  to  be  dead,  have  sud- 
denly proved  themselves,  by  an  unexpected  out- 
burst to  be  alive,  and  to  have  been  only  dormant 
or  sleeping. 

Active  volcanoes  differ  much  in  kind.  Some  are 
rarely  known  to  be  without  signs  of  disturbance; 
others  only  have  occasional  outbursts,  at  more  or 
less  regular  intervals  of  time.  Some,  during  an 
eruption,  throw  out  a  large  amount  of  solid  mate- 
rial; others  contain  chiefly  liquid  lava.  Some  break 
out  only  through  the  crater.  Others  split  open  in 


Volcanoes.  263 


any  part   of  the   mountain-side,   and  desolate  the 
country  round. 

The  tremendous  nature  of  these  underground 
fire-forces,  and  the  enormous  amount  of  molten 
rock  which  must  be  lying  stored  in  earth's  reser- 
voirs, can  be  best  known  from  such  facts  as 
follow. 

In  South  America  a  long  line  of  volcanoes 
stretches  along  the  western  coast,  bordering  the 
Pacific.  Many  of  these  Volcanoes  of  the  Andes 
are  believed  to  be  extinct,  but  others  continue 
active.  Some  of  them  outdo  in  loftiness  Mont 
Blanc  itself.  Cotopaxi,  for  instance,  is  little  less 
than  nineteen  thousand  feet  in  height,  being  clothed 
commonly  in  a  robe  of  spotless  snow.  This  whole 
vast  mass  of  snow  has  been  known  to  vanish  in 
a  single  night,  under  the  tremendous  heat  of  a 
sudden  outbreak. 

As  a  rule,  not  much  lava  is  thrown  from  the 
volcanoes  of  the  Andes,  but  more  of  vapor  and 
ashes.  Sometimes  from  outpourings  of  water,  or 
sudden  meltings  of  snow,  tremendous  rushes  of  mud 
have  flowed  down  the  mountain-sides  and  over  the 
country  round — the  liquid  mingling  on  its  way  with 
sand  and  stones.  Valleys  one  thousand  feet  in 


264  The   World's  Foundations. 

width  have  been  completely  blocked  up  with  such 
mud,  to  a  height  of  six  hundred  feet. 

In  Mexico  there  are  five  great  active  volcanoes 
in  a  single  chain,  one  of  them  being  called  Jorullo. 

About  a  century  and  a  half  ago  the  table-land, 
from  which  the  Jorullo  cone  now  rises,  was  a  fair 
landscape,  where  the  indigo  and  the  sugar-cane 
were  cultivated,  and  the  inhabitants  lived  in  all 
seeming  security. 

Suddenly,  in  the  month  of  June,  1759,  suspicious 
underground  rumblings  and  grumblings  were  heard, 
and  by-and-by  severe  quakings  of  the  earth  fol- 
lowed. There  were  many  who  took  alarm,  and  fled 
for  safety.  Well  for  them  that  they  did  so. 

Two  months  of  earthquakes  were  followed  by  the 
outbreak  of  flames  from  the  ground,  and  masses  of 
burning  rock  were  flung  high  into  the  air.  Then 
the  whole  surface  of  the  country  thereabouts  seemed 
to  be  uplifted,  like  a  huge  swelling  bubble,  and 
vast  quantities  of  lava  mixed  with  cinders  were 
poured  forth,  building  no  less  than  six  separate 
cones.  One  who  had  lived  there,  and  had  tilled 
the  land  for  many  a  year,  watched  from  a  distant 
height  this  strange  transformation  of  his  peaceful 
farmstead  into  a  fiery  furnace. 

Forty  years  later  the  great  upheaved  mass,  with 


VV.   Fi>ui:d:it 


p.  264. 


Volcanoes.  265 


its  smoking  cones,  was  still  warm.  Two  little  rivers, 
which  had  once  flowed  in  the  fair  plain,  had  van- 
ished altogether,  and  were  heard  of  no  more. 

Some  of  the  mightiest  eruptions  known  so  far  as 
regards  the  amount  of  lava  poured  out,  have  been 
those  of  Iceland. 

The  year  1783  was  remarkable  for  the  great  out- 
break of  the  Icelandic  Volcano,  Skaptar  Jokul.  The 
first  sign  of  coming  mischief  was  the  bursting  out  of 
a  volcano  under  the  sea,  about  thirty  miles  from 
land.  A  new  island  was  built  up  out  of  the  ma- 
terials there  belched  forth  from  beneath  ocean's 
floor,  and  the  King  of  Denmark  claimed  it  for  his 
own,  naming  it  "New  Island."  His  Majesty  en- 
joyed but  a  brief  possession.  One  year  went  by, 
and  the  loose  pile  had  been  washed  away  by  the 
restless  waves. 

Meanwhile  earthquakes  became  more  and  more 
severe  in  Iceland,  and  at  length  the  threatened 
eruption  came. 

A  fierce  torrent  of  liquid  lava  burst  from  the 
crater  of  the  Skaptar  Jokul,  and  poured  down 
the  mountain.  The  river  Skapta  flowed  below  in 
a  gorge  between  steep  rocks,  two  hundred  feet 
apart,  and  from  four  to  six  hundred  feet  high. 


266  The   World's  Foundations. 

The  lava  took  the  course  of  this  river-bed,  drying 
up  the  stream,  filling  up  the  whole  gorge,  and 
pouring  over  the  lofty  cliffs  into  the  fields  on 
either  side.  Still  pressing  onward,  it  reached  the 
end  of  the  rocky  gorge,  where  a  deep  lake  used 
to  stand.  The  lava  invaded  the  lake,  banished 
the  water,  filled  up  the  entire  hollow,  and  again 
advanced.  After  a  while  it  reached  a  mighty 
cataract,  where  anew  it  took  the  place  of  the 
water,  pouring  over  in  a  stream  of  liquid  rock. 
Thence  it  spread  widely  over  the  lower  countries, 
carrying  desolation  wherever  it  went. 

By  this  time  the  Skapta  channel  was  completely 
blocked,  and  still  the  lava  stream  poured  unceas- 
ingly from  underground.  It  now  took  a  new 
course,  started  in  another  direction,  invaded  a  sec- 
ond river,  filled  another  deep  gorge,  and  spread 
itself  out  again  over  another  part  of  the  lower 
country. 

Of  these  two  streams,  composed  of  fiery  melted 
rock,  one  was  fifty  miles  in  length,  the  other  only 
five  miles  less;  one  spread  itself  out  to  a  breadth 
of  fifteen  miles  at  its  widest,  the  other  to  seven 
miles;  while  each  was  for  a  considerable  part  of 
its  course  as  much  as  a  hundred  feet  deep,  and  in 
the  rocky  defiles  no  less  than  six  hundred  feet. 


Volcanoes.  267 


Some  twenty  villages  were  destroyed,   and   about 
nine  thousand  people  lost  their  lives. 

It  has  been  reckoned  that  the  amount  of  lava 
poured  out  from  Skaptar  Jokul  in  those  few  months, 
was  sufficient  to  make  an  entire  mountain  as  large 
as  Mont  Blanc. 

The  volcano  Etna,  rising  to  a  height  of  nearly 
eleven  thousand  feet,  may  almost  be  described  as 
a  mass  of  volcanoes,  rather  than  as  one.  It  has 
indeed  a  chief  cone,  and  a  principal  crater,  but  it 
has  also  two  hundred  or  more  lesser  cones  with 
their  lesser  craters,  outgrowths  from  itself.  These 
spring  from  and  circle  round  upon  the  mighty  cen- 
tral cone,  somewhat  after  the  fashion — to  use  a 
rather  inappropriate  simile — of  a  hen-and-chicken 
daisy.  One  of  these  lesser  cones  is  described  as 
seven  hundred  feet  high.  Some  of  them  continue 
still  to  smoke,  while  others  are  overgrown  by  trees. 
From  the  great  centre  crater  sulphureous  vapors 
are  perpetually  poured  forth,  and  thence  from  time 
to  time  come  streams  of  lava. 

A  great  Etna  eruption  took  place  in  1669,  and 
one  of  the  lesser  cones,  Monte  Rossi,  was  then 
formed. 

There    was    first    a  warning    earthquake,   which 


268  The   World's  Foundations. 

levelled  a  whole  town  in  the  neighborhood.  Next, 
in  a  plain  near,  a  tremendous  ground-crack  sud- 
denly appeared,  splitting  to  a  distance  of  twelve 
miles.  It  was  about  six  feet  wide,  and  shone 
with  a  lurid  light,  from  the  glowing  lava  within. 
Five  more  such  huge  cracks  opened  alongside. 

Lava  then  poured  out  in  a  stream  from  the  new 
cone,  Monte  Rossi,  at  that  time  formed  or  being 
formed,  and  as  it  poured  it  rapidly  overwhelmed 
fourteen  towns  and  villages. 

The  inhabitants  of  Catania,  in  dread  of  such  an 
event,  had  surrounded  their  town  with  a  strong 
wall,  sixty  feet  high.  The  flood  of  liquid  rock 
streaming  over  the  country  reached  Catania,  piled 
itself  slowly  higher  and  higher,  till  the  top  of  the 
wall  was  reached,  and  then  flowed  over,  deluging 
the  nearer  part  of  the  town.  The  wall  remained 
standing,  and  to  this  day  the  cold  lava  may  be 
seen,  looking  as  if  petrified  in  the  act  of  creeping 
over  the  rampart. 

This  lava  stream  journeyed  its  first  thirteen  miles 
in  twenty  days,  but  cooling  steadily  as  it  moved, 
it  took  twenty-three  days  for  the  last  two  miles. 
When  finally  it  reached  the  sea,  it  was  still  forty 
feet  deep  and  nine  hundred  feet  wide. 


Volcanoes.  269 


A  fearful  outburst  took  place  in  the  island  of 
Java  many  years  ago. 

The  mountain  Galongoon,  up  to  the  year  1822, 
showed  no  signs  of  disturbance,  being  clothed  in 
a  thick  growth  of  forests.  The  country  around 
was  cultivated  and  peopled.  At  the  top  of  the 
mountain  there  might  indeed  be  seen  a  cup-shaped 
hollow,  but  no  records  had  been  handed  down  of 
any  former  outburst,  and  no  expectations  of  evil 
were  felt. 

All  at  once  in  the  month  of  July,  the  waters  ot 
the  Kunir,  a  river  close  at  hand,  became  heated, 
with  no  apparent  reason.  Nearly  three  months 
passed  without  further  tokens  of  mischief.  Then, 
on  the  8th  of  October,  a  tremendous  explosion 
was  heard,  and  the  ground  shook  beneath  men's 
feet;  while  hot  water  and  boiling  mud,  with  brim- 
stone and  ashes,  were  poured  upwards  out  of  the 
mountain-top,  like  a  huge  ascending  water-spout, 
which  rose  high  before  it  fell  to  earth  and  deluged 
the  country. 

So  tremendous  was  the  force  exerted,  that  some 
of  the  matter  thrown  out  in  this  jet  reached  the 
ground  at  a  distance  of  forty  miles  from  Galongoon. 
For  a  distance  of  twenty-four  miles  in  that  same 
direction,  the  land  was  fairly  inundated  by  bluish 


270  The   World's  Foundations. 

mud,  to  such  a  depth  that  villages  were  entirely 
buried  beneath  it. 

The  boiling  mud  and  red-hot  cinders  were  flung 
out  with  such  violence,  that  they  passed  in  a  great 
measure  over  the  nearer  villages,  and  did  most 
damage  to  those  lying  farther  away. 

Many  human  bodies  literally  boiled  in  mud  were 
strewn  about.  The  first  outbreak  went  on  for  about 
five  hours,  and  was  followed  by  heavy  rain.  Four 
day-s  later  another  yet  more  fearful  outburst  took 
place.  Again  hot  water  and  mud  were  poured  forth, 
and  huge  basaltic  rocks  were  flung  bodily  to  a  dis- 
tance of  seven  miles,  as  a  child  may  toss  a  pebble 
across  the  road;  while  a  great  earthquake  shook  the 
island,  and  one  whole  side  of  the  mountain  broke 
down,  an  immense  gulf  being  thus  suddenly  formed. 

Truly  we  find  a  lesson  here  for  the  student  of 
Geology,  as  to  the  mode  in  which  great  changes  on 
the  earth's  surface  may  here  or  there,  at  one  time  or 
another,  have  been  rapidly  brought  about. 

It  was  said  that  over  one  hundred  villages  were 
destroyed,  and  that  over  four  thousand  people  were 
killed  in  this  eruption. 

Two  good  opposite  instances  of  volcanoes  con- 
taining chiefly  solid  and  chiefly  liquid  kinds  of  mat- 


Volcanoes.  27 1 


ter,  are  the  volcano  of  Vesuvius  in  Naples,  and  the 
volcanoes  of  Hawaii  in  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

Vesuvius  is  the  chief  of  a  volcanic  group.  The 
island  of  Ischia,  belonging  to  this  group,  was  great- 
ly troubled  by  earthquakes  and  fiery  outbreaks,  be- 
fore the  Christian  era,  in  times  when  Vesuvius  was 
looked  upon  as  an  extinct  volcano.  From  the  time 
when  the  fires  of  Vesuvius  began  to  play,  Ischia  en- 
joyed quietness  up  to  the  year  1302.  An  outbreak 
then  took  place,  and  again  it  lived  in  peace  up  to 
the  present  year.  While  this  chapter  is  being  ac- 
tually written,  another  outbreak  has  occurred — 
March,  1881 — and  at  least  two  hundred  people  have 
been  suddenly  and  awfully  cut  off. 

Some  think  that  there  may  be  a  connection  be- 
tween the  underground  fire-seas  of  Vesuvius  and 
Etna.  It  has  been  noticed  that  when  one  great 
mountain  is  active,  the  other  appears  usually  to  be 
at  rest.  If  a  single  vast  reservoir  of  liquid  lava  and 
furnace-heat  lies  below  the  two,  reaching  from  one 
to  the  other,  we  can  easily  understand  how  both 
safety-valves  would  not  be  in  action  at  the  same 
time. 

In  early  ages  Vesuvius  was  looked  upon  as  an  ex- 
tinct or  at  least  as  a  dormant  volcano.  The  first 
known  eruption  was  the  famous  one  of  79,  wherein 


272  The   World's  Foundations. 

the  towns  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  were  buried 
beneath  showers  of  ashes. 

A  great  eruption  took  place  in  the  same  volcanic 
neighborhood,  in  the  year  1538.  Earthquakes  shook 
the  country;  fire  burst  from  the  ground;  ashes, 
stones,  and  water  were  poured  forth;  the  sea  was 
driven  back  from  the  Bay  of  Baiae;  the  solid  ground 
was  uplifted  in  the  form  of  a  huge  bubble:  a  mouth 
or  crater  opened  in  this  bubble,  to  pour  out  stones, 
ashes,  and  mud;  and  in  less  than  a  week — chiefly  in 
the  course  of  twenty-four  hours — the  Monte  Nuovo 
or  New  Hill  was  formed,  being  over  four  hundred 
feet  in  height,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  round  at  its 
bottom. 

A  description  of  the  Vesuvian  eruption  of  1779, 
given  by  an  eyewitness,  says  that — "Jets  of. liquid 
lava,  mixed  with  stones  and  scoriae,  were  thrown 
up  to  the  height  of  at  least  ten  thousand  feet,  hav- 
ing the  appearance  of  a  column  of  fire."  All  this 
matter  falling  back  upon  the  cone  and  shining  bril- 
liantly with  a  "lurid  red  light,  seemed  to  be  one 
vast  mass  of  fire,  sending  heat  to  a  distance  of  six 
miles  around."  In  another  such  eruption  "millions 
of  red-hot  stones  were  shot  into  the  air,  full  half 
the  height  of  the  cone  itself,  and  then,  bending,  fell 
all  round  in  a  fine  arch." 


Volcanoes.  273 


In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  the  great 
crater  of  Vesuvius  had  been  slowly  filled  up  with 
lava  rising  from  below,  or  with  other  materials 
tossed  up  in  lesser  outbreaks.  The  crater  was,  in 
fact,  scarcely  a  cup  any  longer,  or  at  least  it  was  no 
empty  cup.  When  the  eruption  of  1822  took  place, 
all  these  collected  materials  were  flung  clean  out  in 
one  mighty  effort,  and  once  more  a  great  empty 
hollow  was  left,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  across.  So 
strong  was  the  explosion  which  worked  this  sud- 
den clearance,  that  about  eight  hundred  feet  of  the 
mountain-top  were  blown  completely  away  by  it. 

Although  lavas  flow  from  Vesuvius,  yet  a  consid- 
erable proportion  of  the  material  thrown  up  is  of  a 
more  solid  nature,  such  as  granite,  sand,  stones, 
cinders,  and  dust. 

A  marked  difference  is  seen  in  the  volcanoes  of 
the  Sandwich  Islands.  The  chief  volcanoes  of 
Hawaii,  Mount  Loa,  Mount  Koa  or  Kea,  and 
Mount  Kilauea,  are  more  or  less  mere  shells,  filled 
with  very  liquid  lava. 

Eruptions  in  these  mountains  commonly  take 
place,  either  through  the  breaking  down  of  part 
of  the  crater-brim,  from  the  weight  of  the  rising 
liquid  within;  or  through  the  opening  of  a  sudden 
crack  or  rent  in  the  side  of  the  heavily-charged 


274  The  World's  Foundations. 

mountain.  Either  way  the  lava  streams  down  and 
inundates  the  country. 

The  following  extract  so  well  bears  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  Geology  that  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  it: 

"At  Hilo  .  .  .  they  have  felt  the  perpetual  shud- 
der of  earthquakes.  .  .  Once  they  traced  a  river  of 
lava  burrowing  its  way  fifteen  hundred  feet  below 
the  surface,  and  saw  it  emerge,  and  fall  hissing  into 
the  ocean.  Once  from  their  highest  mountain  a 
pillar  of  fire,  two  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  lifted 
itself  for  three  weeks  one  thousand  feet  into  the  air, 
making  night  day  for  one  hundred  miles  round,  and 
leaving  as  its  monument  a  cone  one  mile  in  circum- 
ference. We  see  a  clothed  and  finished  earth;  they 
see  the  building  of  an  island,  layer  on  layer,  hill  on 
hill,  the  naked  and  deformed  product  of  the  melt- 
ing, forging  and  welding,  which  go  on  perpetually 
in  the  crater  of  Kilauea."* 

And  again,  with  reference  to  Mount  Loa:  "It  is 
probable  that  the  whole  interior  of  this  huge  dome 
is  fluid;  for  the  eruptions  from  this  summit-crater 
do  not  proceed  from  its  filling  up  and  running  over, 
but  from  the  mountain-sides  being  unable  to  bear 
the  enormous  pressure,  when  they  give  way,  high 
or  low,  and  bursting  allow  the  fiery  contents  to 

•  "Travels  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,"  by  I.  Bird. 


Volcanoes.  275 


escape.  So  in  1855  the  mountain-side  split  open, 
and  the  lava  gushed  forth  thirteen  months,  in  a 
stream  which  ran  for  sixty  miles  and  flooded 
Hawaii  for  three  hundred  square  miles." 

In  the  summit  of  Kilauea  there  are  open  lakes  of 
liquid  fiery  rock,  described  by  travellers  as  fearfully 
sublime  and  beautiful.  You  have  seen  the  bubbles 
which  break  out  upon  the  surface  of  water  boiling  in 
a  pot.  Such  bubbles  are  seen  upon  the  great  lava- 
lake  of  Kilauea — a  boiling  pot  one  thousand  feet 
across,  the  bubbles  being  fire-fountains,  thirty  or 
forty  feet  in  height,  playing  majestically  over  the 
glowing  surface. 

In  these  Hawaiian  outbreaks  of  lava,  earthquakes 
were  not  commonly  known  to  take  place;  but  in 
1865  there  came  an  eruption  of  exceptional  nature. 
So  fearful  and  continued  were  the  quakings  of  the 
solid  ground  beforehand,  that  men  held  their  breath 
for  fear.  Houses  fell  shattered;  trees  rolled  to  and 
fro,  slashing  the  air;  people  sat  clinging  to  the 
earth,  rocked  helplessly  from  side  to  side;  the 
ground  gaped  in  thousands  of  places;  and  the  whole 
country  "  quivered  like  the  lid  of  a  boiling  pot." 
In  one  place  three  hundred  shocks  were  counted  in 
a  single  day;  while  in  other  places  they  were 
uncountable. 


276  The  World's  Foundations. 

Then  appeared  suddenly  great  rents  in  the  moun- 
tain-side, and  lava-jets  shot  madly  upward  to  the 
height  of  a  thousand  feet.  Rivers  of  lava  poured 
seaward  from  these  fissures,  turning  a  fair  country 
into  a  scorched  wilderness,  wrecking  villages,  de- 
stroying life,  making  havoc  of  all  that  lay  in  their 
path. 

During  more  than  a  week  four  distinct  jets  or 
fountains  continued  to  pour  upward  out  of  the 
rents  to  a  height  of  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  feet. 
At  the  same  time  the  crater  of  Mount  Loa,  and  also 
the  crater  of  Kilauea — the  latter  being  twenty 
miles  distant, — which  before  the  eruption  had  been 
filled  high  with  liquid  lava,  were  gradually  emptied. 

In  some  such  Hawaiian  eruptions  the  lava-streams 
have  flowed,  like  those  of  Iceland,  for  a  distance 
of  fifty  or  sixty  miles. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

EARTHQUAKES. 

"  The  Lord  hath  His  way  in  the  whirlwind  and  in  the  storm  .  .  . 
the  mountains  quake  at  Him  .  .  .  and  the  rocks  are  thrown  down  bj 
Him." — NAHUM  i.  3,  5,  6. 

THOUGH  Earthquakes  are  often  a  mere  accompani- 
ment to  volcanic  outbursts,  taking  place  in  volcanic 
districts;  yet  they  often  happen  also  in  countries  far 
removed  from  volcanoes,  with  no  seeming  connec- 
tion between  the  two.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
however,  that  the  cause  of  earthquakes  is  connected 
with  the  cause  of  volcanic  eruptions. 

A  few  particulars  will  now  be  given,  more  espe- 
cially in  reference  to  earthquakes;  those  in  the  last 
chapter  having  been  more  especially  in  reference  to 
volcanoes.  The  object  in  bringing  them  forward  is 
still  the  same, — to  show  the  workings  of  the  great 
underground  agent,  Fire;  and  to  draw  attention  to 
the  extreme  uncertainties  which  exist  as  to  the 


278  The  World's  Foundations. 

manner  and  the  speed  of  earth-crust  formation  in 
the  past. 


Among  many  severe  earthquakes  which  have  been 
known  to  take  place  in  New  Zealand,  there  was  one 
in  1855  which  completely  altered  the  appearance  of 
the  coast  for  a  considerable  distance.  One  small 
cove  was  described  as  having  been,  in  a  single 
night,  changed  into  dry  ground.  The  extent  of 
country  shaken  by  this  earthquake  was  three  times 
as  much  as  the  whole  of  the  British  Isles. 

In  another  New  Zealand  earthquake,  of  a  few 
years  earlier,  a  great  rent  or  "fault"  was  caused  in 
the  mountain-strata.  This  split  and  slip,  which 
took  place  suddenly,  was  only  about  eighteen 
inches  wide,  but  it  ran  through  the  rocks  for 
a  distance  of  sixty  miles.  A  hint  lies  here  for  us, 
as  to  how  the  greatest  "faults"  in  America  and 
elsewhere  may  have  been  produced. 

In  1835  a  severe  earthquake  was  felt  in  Chili, 
through  about  one  thousand  miles  of  country,  run- 
ning north  and  south. 

Some  years  earlier  there  had  been  one  in  the  same 
country,  far  more  destructive.  Through  many 
months  shocks  went  on  almost  continually,  the 
most  violent  shock  being  on  the  iQth  of  November, 


Earthquakes.  279 


1822.  It  reached  through  a  distance  of  twelve  hun- 
dred miles;  and  next  morning  men  found  that  the 
entire  coast  had  been  bodily  uplifted  to  a  height  of 
two,  three,  and  four  feet,  varying  in  different  parts, 
while  inland  the  sudden  upheaval  must  have  been 
as  much  as  six  or  seven  feet.  It  was  calculated 
that  about  one  hundred  thousand  square  miles  had 
been  thus  raised  in  one  tremendous  effort  of  nature, 
remaining  afterwards  at  its  new  level. 

Another  instance,  somewhat  like  in  kind,  hap- 
pened near  Cutch,  in  India.  A  violent  earthquake 
took  place  there,  not  far  from  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  doing  much  damage.  An  estuary 
of  the  sea,  where  at  high  tide  the  water  had  been 
six  feet  deep,  and  at  low  water  only  one  foot,  be- 
came suddenly  eighteen  feet  deep  at  low  water; 
while  the  neighboring  fort  and  village  of  Sundree 
were  overflowed  by  the  ocean. 

Some  two  thousand  square  miles  of  land  were  then 
and  there  transformed  into  an  inland  arm  of  the  sea. 
Also,  immediately  after  the  shock,  the  inhabitants 
of  Sundree,  watching  from  a  spot  where  they  had 
fled  for  safety,  could  perceive  a  long  raised  mound, 
about  five  and  a  half  miles  distant,  where  before 
there  had  been  a  low  flat  plain.  This  mound,  over 
fifty  miles  long,  sixteen  miles  wide,  and  about  ten 


280  The   World's  Foundations. 

feet  deep  at  its  most,  was  named  by  them  "  Ullah 
Bund,"  or  "The  Mound  of  God."  A  strange  fold- 
ing of  the  earth-crust  seems  there  to  have  hap- 
pened; sharp  rising  and  sinking  side  by  side. 

In  1812  fearful  earthquake-shocks  were  experi- 
enced in  Caraccas,  South  America.  The  ground 
rapidly  rose  and  fell,  with  terrible  sounds  beneath, 
and  in  a  single  moment  the  whole  city  became  one 
vast  pile  of  ruins,  with  ten  thousand  human  beings 
buried  in  the  wreck.  Lava  and  water  were  thrown 
from  a  volcano  not  far  distant. 

Somewhat  before  this  event,  and  possibly  con- 
nected with  it,  great  disturbances  took  place  in 
South  Carolina  and  Missouri — one  of  the  compara- 
tively rare  instances  of  severe  and  long-continued 
earth-shaking  in  places  far  distant  from  any  volcano. 

Tremendous  changes  are  described  as  having  come 
about  with  awful  suddenness.  Land  became  cov- 
ered for  many  miles  with  water,  and  then  became 
dry  land  again.  Lakes,  twenty  miles  across,  were 
formed  in  the  course  of  a  single  hour,  and  others 
were  as  rapidly  emptied  of  all  their  contents.  The 
New  Madrid  graveyard  was  launched  bodily  into 
the  Mississippi;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
told  afterwards  how  the  ground  had  risen  and  sunk 


Earthquakes.  281 


in  great  billows  like  the  sea;  and  how,  when  these 
solid  billows  reached  a  certain  height,  they  broke 
open,  and  water  with  sand  and  coal  were  spouted 
out  to  the  height  of  the  tree-tops.  Hundreds  of 
these  gaping  cracks  were  seen  seven  years  after- 
wards by  a  traveller,  remaining  still  unclosed. 

The  shocks  continued  through  three  months,  and 
the  people  gradually  found  that  the  cracks  or  fis- 
sures usually  opened  in  a  particular  direction;  so 
that,  by  felling  large  trees  to  lie  in  an  opposite 
direction  and  taking  refuge  on  the  trunks,  they 
sometimes  escaped  the  fearful  death  of  being  swal- 
lowed alive,  as  were  many  of  their  number  by  the 
opening  earth. 

Another  great  earthquake,  in  many  respects  simi- 
lar, happened  in  Calabria  towards  the  close  of  the 
last  century.  An  earthquake  it  can  hardly  be 
called,  for  though  the  shocks  began  in  February, 
1783,  they  went  on  during  four  years.  The  ground 
often  swayed  and  heaved  like  the  surface  of  the 
ocean,  the  motion  being  sometimes  so  strong  that 
trees  were  seen  to  bend  and  touch  their  tips  to  the 
very  earth,  like  an  Eastern  making  his  salaam,  right- 
ing themselves  again  as  the  vibration  passed  on. 

In  some  parts  the  ground  rose,  in  others  it  sank. 
Deep  fissures  were  formed,  and  remained  open. 


282  The  World's  Foundations. 

Also,  as  the  earthquake-wave  swept  by,  many 
cracks  yawned  suddenly,  without  sign  of  warning, 
and  swallowed  men  and  beasts  alive,  the  walls  of 
the  rent  closing  quickly  upon  them.  In  some  rare 
instances,  it  was  said  that  when  people  were  thus 
swallowed  and  buried  alive,  another  earthquake- 
wave  following  immediately,  the  same  cracks  opened 
again  and  flung  out  their  living  victims,  with  ac- 
companying jets  of  water.  A  fearful  experience 
truly  to  have  lived  through ! 

In  one  place  the  cracks  or  fissures,  instead  of 
being  regularly  placed,  ran  branching  every  way 
from  a  centre,  like  the  lines  on  a  starred  pane  of 
glass.  These  remained  permanently.  One  fissure, 
in  another  part,  which  after  the  earthquake  was 
merely  a  big  crack  about  a  foot  in  width,  had 
yawned  so  broadly  as  to  swallow  an  ox  and  almost 
one  hundred  live  goats. 

About  forty  thousand  people  were  believed  to 
have  lost  their  lives  directly  through  the  earth- 
quake-shocks, and  about  twenty  thousand  more 
indirectly,  through  sicknesses  caused  by  the  earth- 
quake. 

The  famous  Earthquake  of  Lisbon  in  1755  is  too 
well  known  to  require  close  description,  yet  I  can 
hardly  pass  it  entirely  over. 


W.  Foundations  EARTHQUAKE  AT   LISBON. 


p.  £82. 


Earthquakes.  283 


It  came  with  terrible  suddenness.  A  sound  like 
underground  thunder  was  heard,  a  tremendous 
shock  followed,  and  within  six  minutes  about  sixty 
thousand  people  were  destroyed.  The  sea  drew 
back,  then  rolled  tempestuously  in  upon  the  land, 
as  a  wave  fifty  feet  higher  than  its  usual  level, 
sweeping  all  before  it.  Neighboring  mountains 
were  shaken  and  rent,  flames  being  seen  to  spring 
from  them,  and  large  masses  of  rock  were  flung 
down  into  valleys. 

The  newly-built  quay  of  Lisbon,  upon  which  peo- 
ple had  flocked  for  safety,  sank  suddenly  down,  and 
vanished  into  so'me  unknown  abyss.  Not  a  man 
standing  on  it  was  ever  seen  again;  and  the  water, 
which  in  that  part  had  been  only  thirty  feet  deep, 
was  said  to  have  gained  all  at  once  a  depth  of  six 
hundred  feet. 

This  earthquake  was  felt  over  an  enormous  dis- 
tance; the  whole  extent  of  land  and  sea  affected 
being  at  least  four  times  the  size  of  Europe. 

The  thrill  reached  to  the  Alps,  to  Sweden,  to 
Germany,  to  Great  Britain,  to  the  West  Indies,  to 
the  Canadian  Lakes,  to  the  north  of  Africa.  About 
eight  miles  from  Morocco,  the  shock  was  so  violent 
that  a  whole  village  was  swallowed  bodily  at  one 
huge  gulp,  the  earth  opening  and  closing  upon  the 


284  The  World's  Foundations, 

buildings  with  all  their  eight  or  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants. The  same  shock,  extending  through  the 
ocean,  sent  great  waves  upon  the  land  in  many 
different  places,  as  at  Cadiz,  at  Tangier,  and  at 
Kinsale. 

An  earthquake  which  took  place  in  Jamaica, 
nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  should  perhaps  be 
mentioned.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  ground  heaved 
and  swayed  like  a  stormy  sea,  and  burst  into 
countless  rents — two  or  three  hundred  such  cracks 
being  often  seen  at  once,  opening  and  closing,  as 
the  earthquake-wave  passed  on.  Many  individuals 
were  swallowed  alive  in  these  earth  gashes.  Some, 
as  in  Calabria,  were  buried  for  an  instant,  and  then 
flung  out  again.  Others  were  caught  by  the  mid- 
dle, and  were  squeezed  to  death,  as  the  gaping  jaws 
of  the  chasm  shut  upon  them.  Others  thus  seized, 
had  only  their  heads  remaining  above  ground. 

Something  may  be  gathered  from  these  partic- 
ulars as  to  the  work  done  by  earthquakes  in  the 
fashioning  of  the  earth's  crust.  Mountains  have 
been  shattered  and  split,  cracked  and  faulted.  Hills 
have  been  formed  in  a  single  night.  Forests  have 
been  levelled  at  a  blow.  Miles  of  country  have  been 


Earthquakes.  285 


suddenly  lowered  or  suddenly  raised.  Valleys,  ra- 
vines, fissures,  have  been  instantaneously  formed  or 
deepened  and  widened.  Sea -beaches  have  been 
lifted  or  depressed;  water-coves  have  become  dry 
land;  lakes  have  been  made  or  emptied;  all  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours.  Towns  and  villages  have 
been  laid  low,  wrecked,  buried  underground,  or 
engulphed  in  the  ocean,  with  scarcely  a  moment's 
warning. 

With  regard  to  volcanic  eruptions,  it  is  calculated 
that,  taking  large  and  small  together,  there  may 
be  about  twenty  in  the  world  every  year,  on  an 
average,  or  two  thousand  every  century. 

Even  supposing  that  there  have  never  been  any 
mightier  or  more  frequent  outbursts  than  in  modern 
times — a  question  about  which  we  are  necessarily 
in  the  dark, — the  amount  of  change  worked  in  the 
earth's  crust,  by  two  thousand  volcanic  outbursts 
each  century  through  countless  ages,  must  indeed 
be  great. 

Where  actual  eruptions  have  taken  place  in  the 
past,  signs  of  the  same  are  often  still  visible  in  the 
shape  of  cones  or  lava.  In  Auvergne,  for  example, 
there  are  many  such  cones,  once  fiery  and  active, 
now  cold  and  dead. 

But  in  other  parts,  where  no  such  silent  witnesses 


286  The   World's  Foundations. 

are  found,  we  are  not  thereby  freed  from  uncer- 
tainties. Rather,  we  are  plunged  more  deeply  into 
them. 

For  if  we  may  say  with  some  confidence  that  vol- 
canoes have  not  existed  here  or  there,  no  such 
assertion  can  be  made  with  regard  to  earthquakes. 
These  abrupt  movements  of  the  crust  reach  to  un- 
known distances  from  volcanoes,  and  their  effects 
cannot  in  after  -  ages  be  distinguished  from  the 
effects  of  quieter  alterations  slowly  taking  place. 

There  is  not  a  country  in  the  world  which  may 
not,  at  one  time  or  another,  have  endured  some 
of  these  terrific  shakings.  There  is  not  a  spot  in 
the  earth  which  may  not  have  been  upheaved  or 
lowered,  rent  or  dislocated,  by  earthquake-action. 
There  is  not  a  stratum  in  the  earth-crust  building 
which  may  not  have  been  more  or  less  affected 
by  these  underground  influences.  There  is  not  a 
fault  or  a  slip  or  a  slide  .in  the  rocks,  there  is  not 
a  displacement  or  a  rise  or  a  fall  in  the  strata, 
there  is  not  a  bend  or  a  twist  or  a  fold  in  the 
layers,  which  may  not  have  been  the  sudden  and 
rapid  result  of  disturbances  below.  Every  chasm, 
every  valley,  every  table -land,  every  mountain, 
which  may  be  the  result  of  slow  and  gradual 
water-working,  may  no  less  be,  at  least  in  part, 


Earthquakes.  287 


the  result  of  sudden  and  tremendous  fire-working. 
The  uncertainty  in  which  we  stand  on  such  points, 
may  well  warn  us  to  be  careful  in  drawing  con- 
clusions. It  has  been  said:  "Give  me  an  earth- 
quake, and  I  will  give  you  any  physical  condition 
you  please."  We  can  scarcely  make  too  much 
allowance  for  these  past  unknown  possibilities. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

HOT    SPRINGS. 

"Worship  Him  that  made  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  the  Sea  and  the 
Fountains  of  Waters."— REV.  xiv.  7. 

A  FEW  more  particulars  still  have  to  be  given,  as 
to  the  underground  fiery  forces,  of  which  the  vol- 
cano and  the  earthquake  tell  us  so  much. 

The  risings,  sinkings,  and  tremblings  of  land, 
detailed  in  the  last  chapter,  although  often  reach- 
ing to  a  very  great  distance  from  any  volcanic 
centre,  were  yet  in  almost  every  instance  plainly 
connected  with  one  or  another  such  volcanic 
centre. 

But  movements  of  the  earth-crust  do  also  take 
place,  which  cannot  be  distinctly  traced  as  taking 
their  rise  at  any  such  centre:  albeit  there  is  little 
doubt  that  they  spring  from  the  same  cause. 

The  examples  given  have  been  of  rapid  move- 


Hot  Springs.  289 


ment  and  sudden  change.  The  underground  forces 
do  not,  however,  always  work  either  rapidly  or 
suddenly.  There  are  gradual  risings  and  gradual 
sinkings,  as  well  as  sudden  and  startling  upheavals 
and  subsidences. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  signs 
were  first  observed  of  a  sudden  change  taking  place 
on  the  coasts  of  lands  bordering  the  Baltic  Sea  and 
German  Ocean.  Rocks  once  buried  under  the  sea 
had  become  visible  at  low  tide;  towns  which  once 
bordered  the  sea  had  become  inland  cities;  and 
former  islands  had  become  part  of  the  mainland. 
Nay,  ancient  history  had  spoken  of  the  whole  of 
Scandinavia  as  an  island,  whereas  it  was  then  dis- 
tinctly joined  to  Europe. 

Plainly,  therefore,  men  argued,  the  sea  was  beat- 
ing a  retreat.  It  was  evident  that  the  waters  of 
the  Baltic  Ocean  and  the  German  Sea  were  gradu- 
ally sinking. 

This  idea  roused  opposition,  and  no  wonder.  For 
if  the  water  were  sinking  lower  in  those  two  seas, 
it  must  have  been  sinking  lower  all  through  the 
Atlantic  Ocean;  and  if  throughout  the  Atlantic, 
then  throughout  the  Pacific  Ocean  also,  and  in  fact 
all  over  the  world  wherever  open  sea  existed.  If 
the  whole  ocean  had  really  sunk  at  the  rate  cal- 


290  The   World's  Foundations. 

culated — some  forty  Swedish  inches  in  one  hundred 
years,  or  as  much  as  fifteen  feet  during  four  hundred 
years — why  were  not  the  same  changes  seen  along 
all  sea-coasts  in  all  the  world  ?  How  was  it  that  the 
change  appeared,  even  in  Sweden,  more  marked 
at  one  spot  than  at  another  ?  Near  Stockholm  the 
waters  seem  to  have  sunk  ten  inches  in  a  century, 
while  at  some  distance  to  the  north  of  Stockholm 
the  alteration  was  two  feet  and  a  half  in  a  century. 
If  the  sea  were  sinking  at  all,  it  must  surely  sink 
equally  everywhere. 

So  the  idea  of  the  sinking  sea  was  given  up,  and 
the  only  other  possible  explanation  was  that  the 
land  had  slowly  risen.  This  is  held  to  be  the  true 
explanation. 

The  rise  is  not  the  same  in  all  parts,  but  it  is 
everywhere  very  slow  and  steady.  How  long  it 
has  gone  on,  or  will  continue  to  go  on,  we  can- 
not tell. 

The  remarkable  part  of  the  matter  is,  that — so 
far  back  at  least  as  history  reaches — no  volcanic 
outbursts  or  earthquakes  have  happened  in  Sweden. 
A  slight  tremor  may  indeed  have  thrilled  the  land 
from  some  distant  disturbance,  as  when  the  great 
Lisbon  earthquake  vibrated  through  Europe.  But 
Sweden  is  no  volcanic  centre,  and  shows  signs  of  no 


Hot  Springs.  291 


underground  fire-seas.  Yet  doubtless  this  gradual 
rising  is  in  some  manner  connected  with  the  under- 
ground fiery  worker. 

Greenland  is,  in  like  manner,  a  land  peculiarly 
free  from  volcanic  heavings  or  shakings;  yet  in 
Greenland  also  a  somewhat  similar  change  is  taking 
place.  The  difference  is  that  while  Sweden  is  ris- 
ing, Greenland  is  sinking. 

For  more  than  six  hundred  years  past  the  coast 
of  Greenland  has  been  slowly  going  down,  and  the 
waves  have  been  gradually  creeping  higher.  The 
Greenlander  is  much  too  wise  to  build  his  hut  close 
to  the  sea.  In  one  place  there  are  strong  poles 
still  visible  under  water,  to  which  once  upon  a  time 
the  Moravian  settlers  used  to  fasten  their  boats. 
They  had  to  retreat  inland  and  leave  their  poles 
behind  them. 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  next  chapter  that  a  large 
part  of  the  floor  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  is  also  thought 
to  have  been  long  gradually  sinking,  though  about 
this  we  cannot  be  sure. 

Many  risings  and  sinkings  of  land  in  past  ages 
were  spoken  about  in  the  second  part  of  this  book. 
The  examples  given  in  the  present  chapter  and 
the  one  before,  will  show  clearly  how  such  sinkings 
may  have  come  about  either  suddenly  or  slowly — 


292  The   World's  Foundations. 

either  as  some  great  catastrophe  of  an  hour,  or  as 
a  quiet  change  lasting  through  centuries. 

One  remarkable  instance  of  these  variations  in  the 
earth's  surface  is  to  be  seen  in  the  ruined  Temple 
of  Jupiter  Serapis,  at  Puzzuoli,  not  far  from  the 
Monte  Nuovo. 

Three  pillars  remain  standing,  each  one  about 
forty  feet  in  height.  Above  the  pedestal  of  each 
rise  twelve  feet  of  smooth  uninjured  marble,  and 
over  them  are  nine  feet,  where  borings  through  and 
through  the  marble  have  been  made  by  a  certain 
ocean  shell-creature. 

This  seems  to  show  clearly  that  at  one  time  the 
temple  must  have  sunk  so  low — through  the  sinking 
of  the  ground — that  the  twelve  feet  of  smooth  mar- 
ble were  covered  up  and  protected  by  earth  or 
rock,  while  the  nine  feet  must  have  had  ocean  water 
flowing  round  them.  Again  an  upheaval  must 
have  taken  place  later,  lifting  the  ruined  temple 
with  its  three  standing  pillars  to  their  present  posi- 
tion. The  temple  is  believed  to  have  been  built 
long  before  the  Christian  Era.  The  downward  and 
upward  movements  in  this  case  were  probably  very 
slow.  Had  they  been  otherwise,  the  three  pillars 
could  scarcely  have  remained  upright. 


Hot  Springs.  293 


By  far  the  greater  number  of  volcanoes  in  the 
world  are  placed  at  no  great  distance  from  the 
ocean;  and  it  is  supposed  that  water  may  have 
much  to  do  with  their  eruptions. 

The  most  commonly  received  explanation  of  vol- 
canoes is  that  of  vast  underground  fire-seas  or  fire- 
reservoirs,  connected  with  the  cone-shaped  hills 
above  ground  by  natural  openings.  As  already 
explained,  the  cone-shaped  hills  are  usually  made 
entirely  in  the  first  instance  out  of  materials 
poured  up  from  below.  A  volcano  may  be  looked 
upon  as  a  necessary  safety-valve  to  such  a  buried 
fiery  furnace  of  tremendous  heat  and  melted 
rock. 

Now  it  is  well  known  that  much  water  from  the 
sea  soaks  into  the  nearest  land,  finding  its  way 
through  the  loose  sand  or  through  cracks  and  crev- 
ices in  the  rock.  Thus  it  wanders  on  till  it  joins 
other  streams,  and  at  length  finds  its  way  up  to 
the  surface. 

But  where  these  fiery  lakes  lie  hard  by,  a  dif- 
ferent result  is  likely  to  follow.  Imagine  the  enor- 
mous extent  of  the  reservoir  which,  for  instance, 
supplies  all  the  volcanoes  along  the  mountain  range 
of  the  Andes,  or  that  which  extends  beneath  the 
great  Hawaiian  group,  or  that  which  feeds  the 


294  The  World's  Foundations. 

mighty  Vesuvian  neighborhood.  If  sea-water  in 
any  large  quantity  should  soak  through  the  soils, 
and  find  its  way  to  these  fiercely-glowing  reservoirs, 
we  can  imagine  the  tumult  which  must  ensue.  Every 
drop  of  water  would  be  rapidly  turned  to  steam,  and 
the  effects  of  large  bodies  of  steam  suddenly  formed 
in  a  limited  space  are  well  known.  Steam  has 
mighty  explosive  power,  as  seen  in  numerous  fear- 
ful accidents  of  bursting  boilers  and  lost  lives.  This 
explanation  may  account  for  many  great  shakings 
and  tremblings  of  land. 

The  same,  slightly  modified,  would  also  serve 
for  the  Hot-water  springs  of  some  countries. 

Such  springs  are  found  in  many  places,  and  often 
far  removed  from  known  volcanic  centres.  Look  at 
the  hot  springs  of  Bath,  for  example.  Bath  is  built 
in  a  basin  surrounded  by  hills,  probably  the  crater 
of  an  extinct  volcano.  No  outbursts  have  been 
known  to  take  place  there  within  the  memory  of 
man,  and  no  signs  remain  of  outbursts  in  earlier 
ages. 

Yet  in  the  bottom  of  that  hill-encircled  hollow, 
four  streams  of  hot  water,  laden  with  mineral  torn 
from  the  rocks,  rush  perpetually  up  from  under- 
ground, and  have  so  rushed  for  centuries  past. 
One  alone  of  these  springs  sends  forth  eight  gal- 


Hot  Springs.  295 


Ions  and  a  half  every  minute.  The  heat  of  the 
water  is  from  about  114  degrees  to  120  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  The  amount  of  mineral  borne  up- 
wards in  a  single  year  by  all  four  springs,  has 
been  calculated  to  be  large  enough  for  the  mak- 
ing of  a  square  column,  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  high  and  nine  feet  in  diameter.  Heated 
gases,  to  a  large  amount,  are  poured  out  with 
the  water. 

The  nearest  known  volcano  lies  four  hundred 
miles  away.  But  what  if,  below  the  pleasant 
town  of  Bath,  there  still  lie  the  smouldering  re- 
mains, deep  underground,  of  the  fiery  reservoir 
from  which  the  crater  was  probably  once  fed  ? 
Water  passing  through  the  rocks  in  channels 
might  thus  be  heated,  and  the  temperature  of 
the  springs  might  thus  be  explained. 

Many  more  such  hot  springs  are  found  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Europe  and  America. 

A  still  more  remarkable  description  of  hot 
spring  is  the  kind  called  a  Geyser.  The  Geysers 
are,  in  fact,  natural  hot  fountains,  playing  at 
intervals,  with  pauses  between.  There  are  Gey- 
sers in  Iceland,  in  New  Zealand,  and  in  North 
America. 


296  The   World's  Foundations. 

About  thirty  miles  from  the  Icelandic  volcano, 
Hecla — with  which  no  doubt  they  are  connected 
— one  hundred  Geysers  may  be  found,  within  a 
compass  of  two  miles.  They  break  out  from  thick 
layers  of  lava,  through  which  the  hot  streams  have 
forced  their  way.  The  water  rises  through  a  nat- 
ural pipe,  from  underground  regions,  into  a  cup- 
shaped  basin,  larger  or  smaller  according  to  the 
size  of  the  particular  Geyser. 

The  great  Geyser  has  a  basin  fifty-six  feet  in 
diameter  one  way,  and  forty-six  feet  the  other. 
A  mound  surrounds  it,  built  out  of  the  flinty 
droppings  from  the  waters.  The  play  of  the 
stream  is  up  a  pipe  some  ten  feet  in  diameter, 
and  known  to  descend  abruptly  seventy-eight  feet. 
Sometimes  the  basin  is  empty,  but  more  commonly 
it  is  full  of  clear  boiling  water.  The  eruption,  as 
a  rule,  comes  on  gradually,  with  rumbling  under- 
ground noises  and  shakings  of  the  earth.  The 
water  is  flung  up  in  jets,  with  loud  explosions, 
becoming  more  and  more  powerful,  until  the  jets 
reach  a  height  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  even 
two  hundred  feet.  Clouds  of  vapor  float  away, 
and  at  length  the  flow  of  water  stops.  A  sharp 
rush  of  steam  up  the  pipe,  with  a  thundering  noise, 
closes  the  display. 


W.  Foundations. 


Hot  Springs.  297 

Most  of  the  Geysers  play  for  about  five  or  six 
minutes  at  a  time,  though  sometimes  they  will  go 
on  for  half  an  hour.  It  was  found  that,  by  throw- 
ing large  stones  down  the  pipe  of  one  Geyser,  an 
eruption  could  at  any  time  be  brought  on.  The 
stones,  exploding  into  pieces,  were  thrown  vio- 
lently to  an  unusual  height. 

The  Geysers  of  Iceland  are  far  surpassed  in  num- 
ber by  those  of  America.  In  the  Yellowstone 
Park  district  there  are  hot  and  warm  springs,  to- 
gether with  Geysers,  amounting  in  all  to  some 
ten  thousand,  already  known,  while  an  unexplored 
region  of  them  lies  beyond. 

The  "Giant  Geyser"  in  this  neighborhood  has 
a  partly  broken-down  cone,  ten  feet  high,  and 
twenty-four  feet  in  diameter  close  to  the  ground. 
Its  occasional  hot  jet  of  water  rises  to  a  height 
of  one  or  two  hundred  feet. 

The  "Beehive  Geyser"  throws  out  a  jet  to  the 
same  height,  though  its  basin  is  very  much  smaller. 

Another  called  "  Liberty  Cap,"  has  quite  ceased 
to  play,  and  is  supposed  to  be  extinct.  While  the 
"Beehive"  cone  is  only  three  feet  high,  that  of 
"Liberty  Cap"  is  thirty  feet. 

"Old  Faithful"  is  yet  another,  so  named  because 
of  its  curious  regularity  in  action.  Once  in  every 


298  The  World's  Foundations. 

sixty-five  minutes,  as  a  rule,  it  flings  a  jet  to  the 
height  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  feet. 

In  one  instance,  two  Geysers  were  seen  to  play 
alternately  a  duet  of  jets;  one  ceasing  immediately 
the  other  began,  and  beginning  as  soon  as  the  other 
left  off. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

CORAL. 

"Thou  hast  made The  sea  and  all  that  is  therein."— 

NEH.  ix.  6. 

FROM  liquid  lava  and  boiling  water,  from  fiery  out- 
bursts and  fearful  earth-quakings,  we  turn  now  to 
quite  another  class  of  workers. 

For  all  lands  in  the  world  are  not  built  up  by 
rivers  or  piled  together  by  volcanic  eruptions. 
There  are  lands — not  indeed  so  wide  in  extent — 
quietly  raised,  inch  upon  inch,  through  century 
after  century,  by  the  ceaseless  activities  of  the  soft 
jelly-bodied  Polyp  of  southern  seas  called  the 
Coral. 

Coral-animals  lived  once  upon  a  time  over  Eng- 
land, when  half-built  English  shores  lay  low  under 
the  ocean-waves,  and  over  many  other  countries 
also  of  the  temperate  zones,  where  in  these  days  they 
cannot  exist.  To  learn  about  the  coral  now,  we 


300  The  World's  Foundations. 

must  wend  our  way  to  the  warm  soft  clime  of  the 
South  Pacific  Ocean  or  the  Caribbean  Sea. 

The  hard  substance,  red,  pink,  or  white  in  color, 
which  we  call  coral,  is  made  chiefly  of  lime,  and  is 
in  fact  a  sort  of  inside  skeleton  to  the  soft-bodied 
living  animal,  the  coral-polyp.  When  the  coral-reef 
is  growing,  the  slimy  body  of  the  jelly-like  polyp  is 
spread  over  the  outside  of  the  hard  coral,  busily 
gathering  lime  from  the  ocean-waters,  and  forming 
more  and  more  of  the  hard  substance,  which  lasts 
long  ages  after  the  delicate  living  creature  has  died. 
But  if  you  look  at  a  piece  of  coral,  you  will  see  it 
to  be  full  of  tiny  holes  or  cells,  many  of  them  so 
small  as  to  be  like  mere  pin-pricks.  Into  these 
holes  the  polyp  can  almost  entirely  withdraw  itself 
if  alarmed.  So  the  hard  coral  is  only  in  part  a  kind 
of  inside  skeleton,  since  it  serves  also  for  an  outside 
protecting  shell. 

There  are  many  different  kinds  of  coral,  and 
each  kind  thrives  at  its  own  particular  depth  in 
the  ocean.  Some  descriptions  are  found  as  low  as 
six  or  eight  hundred,  or  even  nine  hundred  feet, 
below  the  surface;  but  these  are  not  reef-building 
corals.  They  are  usually  a  solitary  description, 
either  living  quite  alone,  or  else  living  just  a  few 


Coral.  301 

together,  in  which  case  the  coral  formed  by  the 
little  company  of  polyps  is  generally  branched. 

The  reef-building  kinds  are  not  "deep-sea  cor- 
als," but  are  found,  as  a  rule,  never  to  exist  at  a 
greater  depth  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet. 
Also,  neither  they  nor  any  other  coral-polyps  can 
live  above  water.  So  the  work  of  reef  and  island- 
building  has  all  to  be  carried  on — so  it  appears  to 
us — within  the  belt  of  water  reaching  from  low-tide 
level  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  downwards. 
When  such  coral  is  found  either  below  that  depth 
or  above  water,  it  is  dead — the  hard  white  skele- 
ton-substance remaining,  with  its  little  empty  holes, 
and  no  living  polyp. 

If  this  be  so,  how  is  it  that  coral  lies  above  reach 
of  the  waves  ?  Also,  how  can  coral  be  found — as 
it  certainly  is — far  deeper  down  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty  feet  ? 

The  first  of  these  questions  is  not  difficult  to 
answer. 

For  there  are  other  powers  at  work  beside  the 
busy  animals.  The  coral  polyps  carry  on  their 
formation  steadily,  inch  by  inch,  till  they  have  built 
a  broad  platform  up  to  the  low-tide  surface  of  the 
sea.  There  they  stop,  for  they  have  no  power  to 
make  farther  advance.  They  may  lengthen  or 


302  The  World's  Foundations. 

widen  the  bank  of  coral;  they  cannot  raise  it 
higher.  If  the  waves  should  cease  to  wash  over 
them  they  would  die. 

But  the  sea  carries  on  the  unfinished  work.  The 
heavy  swelling  surge  of  the  broad  Pacific  beats 
ceaselessly  against  and  over  the  bank,  and  the 
waves  break  off  masses  of  coral,  flinging  them  on 
the  platform  and  heaping  them  together,  till  at 
length  a  height  is  gained  over  which  only  the 
stormiest  spring  tides  can  sweep. 

You  must  not  suppose  that  the  whole  reef  is 
composed  of  delicate  coral  branches,  such  as  you 
have  seen  in  shops.  This  reef-coral  is  a  very 
firm  and  solid  kind,  not  red  or  pink,  but  white;  and 
the  perpetual  grinding  of  the  waves  wears  vast 
quantities  of  it  into  fine  powder.  The  greater  part 
of  the  reef  below  is  composed  of  hard  limestone, 
made  out  of  the  powdered  coral;  while  over  the 
surface,  as  soon  as  that  surface  is  raised  high 
enough,  lies  a  thick  layer  of  the  same  white  powder 
— the  bright  white  sand  of  the  coral-island  beach. 
Our  yellow  sand  is  flinty  in  nature,  but  the  sand  of 
a  coral-island  is  made  chiefly  of  lime. 

Mingled  with  broken  and  ground-up  coral  of  the 
reef  there  are  great  quantities  of  shells,  small  and 
large;  lower  down  bound  together  into  firm  rock, 


Coral.  303 

higher  up  loose  and  mixed  together,  more  or  less 
broken  and  pounded. 

When  this  stage  in  the  reef-making  is  reached,  the 
next  step  is  that  seeds  of  plants  and  trees  are  car- 
ried thither  by  the  waves,  and  find  a  resting-place 
upon  the  little  ledge.  These  spring  into  life,  and 
grow  quickly  in  the  tropical  climate.  Now  and 
then  whole  tree-trunks  are  borne  to  the  island, 
having  on  them  insects  or  lizards  swept  from  some 
distant  shore;  and  so  life  begins  there.  Sea-birds, 
too,  settle  from  time  to  time;  and  land-birds,  driven 
by  gales  from  their  native  homes,  take  refuge  in  the 
slender  belt  of  young  trees  soon  growing  along  the 
reef. 

The  coral-buildings  are  of  different  forms.  Some- 
times they  are  found  as  islands,  and  sometimes  as 
long  narrow  reefs.  The  islands  vary  much  in  shape, 
but  the  commonest  and  also  the  most  remarkable 
kind  is  the  Atoll. 

An  Atoll  is  simply  a  ring  of  land — or  rather  of 
coral — surrounded  by  the  deep  ocean,  with  a  lake  or 
"  lagoon  "  of  shallow  salt  water  in  the  middle.  Upon 
this  ring  of  land,  with  its  inner  and  outer  beaches  of 
pure  white  sand,  tall  cocoanut-trees  grow  abun- 
dantly. Inside,  the  water  is  pure  and  still  and 


304  The   World's  Foundations. 

clear,  often  of  a  vivid  green  color.  Outside,  it 
stretches  on  every  side  to  the  horizon,  profoundly 
blue;  while  around  the  slender  circular  strip  of 
coral  the  fierce  Pacific  surge  thunders  unceasingly, 
breaking  down,  and  tearing  up,  and  grinding  to 
powder,  the  materials  of  which  the  island  is  com- 
posed. And  hour  by  hour  the  soft  transparent 
polyps  are  at  work,  gathering  fresh  lime  from  the 
foaming  breakers,  closing  breaches,  repairing  dam- 
ages, and  saving  the  tiny  ocean-oasis  from  destruc- 
tion. 

The  coral-polyps  certainly  give  a  good  illustration 
of  the  advantages  of  combined  labor.  Weak  as  they 
are  individually,  they  are  more  than  a  match,  united, 
for  the  mighty  waves.  Perhaps  it  is  a  little  doubtful 
how  far  we  may  fairly  speak  of  the  reef-building 
coral-polyps  as  "individuals."  They  are  bound  so 
closely  together  in  their  life  and  labor,  that  if  one 
takes  in  food,  he  nourishes  his  neighbors  as  well  as 
himself. 

A  certain  traveller,  who  visited  many  of  these 
islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  found  that  out  of  thir- 
ty-two, as  many  as  twenty-nine  had  lagoons  in  their 
centres.  The  largest  lagoon  was  thirty  miles  across, 
the  smallest  less  than  one  mile. 

A,ll  these  islands  were   composed  of  living  and 


Coral.  305 

growing  coral  except  one,  and  that  one  was  singu- 
larly unlike  the  rest.  It  had  no  lagoon,  but  was 
about  five  miles  long  by  one  mile  broad,  having  a 
flat  surface,  and  upright  cliffs  all  round  of  dead 
coral,  fifty  feet  in  height.  This  island  seemed  to 
have  been  forced  up  to  its  present  level  by  some 
great  underground  thrust — doubtless  the  result  of 
volcanic  forces.  In  another  island  also  the  lagoon 
had  disappeared,  apparently  through  the  building 
up  of  coral  all  over  it. 

In  the  atolls  the  ring  of  land  has  always  at  least 
one  opening,  through  which  ships  may  pass  into  the 
lagoon,  and  there  find  a  safe  harbor.  The  reason  for 
there  being  this  opening  is  not  yet  quite  clearly  un- 
derstood, though  its  convenience  for  sailors  is  plain 
enough.  It  is  usually  found  to  the  windward  of  the 
island.  The  most  probable  explanation  seems  to 
be  the  need  for  some  outlet  for  the  fresh-water 
drainage  of  the  island,  resulting  from  rain.  Where- 
ever  that  outlet  might  lie,  coral-building  would  be 
checked,  since  coral-polyps  have  a  strong  aversion 
to  fresh  water. 

There  are,  in  the  Pacific,  groups  of  coral  islands 
which  extend  over  hundreds  of  miles.  But  the 
islands  composing  such  groups  are  usually  far  scat- 
tered, and  for  the  most  part  small  in  size. 


306  The  World's  Foundations. 

The  Maldive  Islands  stretch  through  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy  miles  in  one  direction,  the  long 
chain  having  a  rough  breadth  of  fifty  miles.  A 
remarkable  point  about  these  islands  is  that  most 
of  them  are  not  simple  atolls,  but  atolls  of  atolls. 
A  child's  chain  of  dandelion  stalks  would  best 
illustrate  this.  Each  link  is  one  small  ring,  and 
all  the  small  rings  joined  together  form  one  large 
ring. 

Some  of  these  complex  islands  are  from  forty  to 
ninety  miles  in  diameter.  The  centre  is  occupied 
by  the  great  chief  lagoon,  its  clear  waters  varying 
in  depth  from  about  fifteen  to  fifty  fathoms.  But  the 
ring  of  land  surrounding,  instead  of  being  a  plain 
broad  reef,  is  a  string  of  little  rings  or  atolls,  some 
of  them  from  three  to  five  miles  across,  and  each 
having  its  own  tiny  lagoon.  Occasionally  a  few 
more  such  tiny  atolls  are  scattered  about  in  the 
large  central  lagoon.  Outside  the  ring  of  little 
atolls  the  ocean-waters  become  suddenly  so  deep 
as  to  be  almost  unfathomable. 

In  addition  to  atolls  and  other  islands,  the  polyps 
often  build  long  reefs  of  coral.  These  are  some- 
times called  Fringing-reefs,  and  sometimes  Barrier- 
reefs. 


Coral.  307 

The  fringing-reefs  are  so  close  inland  as  to  be 
joined  to  the  shore.  The  barrier-reefs  lie  farther 
out*to  sea.  They  usually  border  an  island,  or  run 
along  the  coast  of  a  continent.  Such  reefs  are 
often  more  or  less  wooded  like  the  coral-islands, 
and  sometimes  they  are  very  extensive.  Off  the 
Feejees  there  are  huge  barrier-reefs  from  five  to 
fifteen  miles  wide.  Near  New  Caledonia  there  are 
reef-grounds  four  hundred  miles  long.  Beside  Aus- 
tralian coasts  there  are  barrier-reefs,  fifty  miles 
away  from  the  shore,  lasting  with  breaks  for  a  dis- 
tance of  one  thousand  miles.  The  coral  structure 
in  these  reefs  descends  to  a  depth  of  thousands  of 
feet. 

But  how  can  this  be?  What  about  the  fact 
above-stated  that  the  reef-coral  polyp  cannot  live 
below  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  of  water-depth  ? 

Many  theories  have  been  put  forward  in  explana- 
tion. At  one  time  it  was  thought  that  the  circular 
form  of  the  atolls  was  probably  caused  by  their 
being  built  upon  the  edge  of  a  volcanic  crater  under 
the  ocean,  the  said  crater,  filled  with  water,  form- 
ing the  shallow  lagoon. 

This  theory  is  not  now  so  widely  held.  The 
present  and  more  generally  accepted  idea  is  that 
of  a  gradual  sinking  of  land — or  rather  of  the  sea- 


308  The   World's  Foundations. 

bottom — throughout  a  great  part  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

That  the  ocean-bottom  does  so  sink,  or  has  so 
sunk,  slowly  and  quietly  through  ages  past,  is  a 
matter  about  which  we  have  no  direct  proof;  but  it 
may  have  been  thus  in  the  Pacific,  as  in  Sweden 
and  elsewhere.  This  theory  explains  the  mystery 
better  than  any  other  yet  offered. 

Suppose  that  in  the  deep  Pacific  Ocean  a  certain 
mountain  once  lifted  its  head,  as  a  small  island, 
above  the  water.  All  islands  in  mid-ocean  are  in 
reality  hill-tops  or  mountain-summits. 

In  the  shallows  around  this  little  peak,  rising  out 
of  the  waves,  the  coral-polyps  began  to  build  what 
was  then  only  a  fringing-reef,  close  to  the  shore 
all  round  the  island,  except  perhaps  just  where  a 
stream  of  fresh  water  ran  out  to  sea  and  hindered 
them.  That  is  the  manner  in  which  fringing-reefs 
are  formed,  either  round  an  island  or  along  the 
mainland. 

The  sea-bottom  sinking  year  by  year,  very  slowly 
yet  steadily,  carried  down  the  mountain,  and  thus 
the  little  island  with  its  fringing-reef  sank  also. 
The  polyps  continued  busily  building  up  their  coral- 
bank  to  the  level  of  low-water;  but  as  the  land  sub- 
sided, a  channel  of  slowly  widening  water  ran  be- 


Coral.  309 

tween  the  coral  and  the  shore.  So  the  fringing-reef 
was  turned  into  a  barrier-reef.  And  this  is  how 
barrier-reefs  are  believed  in  many  cases  to  have 
been  formed. 

Still  the  centre  island,  with  its  surrounding  bar- 
rier-reef, went  on  sinking  lower  and  lower,  very 
gradually,  yet  continuously.  The  little  island  grew 
smaller  and  smaller,  but  the  channel  of  water  be- 
tween it  and  the  reef  grew  wider  and  wider. 

At  length  mere  tiny  peaks  showed  like  tips  in  the 
centre.  Then  they  disappeared  at  high-tide.  By- 
and-by  they  were  visible  only  at  low-tide,  and  soon 
they  had  sunk  below  even  the  low-tide  level.  The 
barrier-reef  thus  became  a  circular  reef,  enclosing 
a  little  rocky  pond  of  salt  water.  The  rocky  pond 
deepened,  and  shells  and  ground-up  coral,  together 
with  newly-built  coral,  overspread  the  bottom,  until 
at  length  the  peaks  were  quite  buried  under  branch- 
ing coral  and  white  sand — and  an  Atoll  with  its 
lagoon  was  fully  complete. 

Whether  this  theory — for,  it  is  as  yet  only  a 
theory — serves  for  the  mystery  of  the  Maldive 
atolls  of  atolls,  is  not  quite  clear.  So  far  as  the 
ordinary  atoll  and  reef  are  concerned,  it  seems  to 
be  a  sufficient  explanation. 

The   thought  has  been  suggested  that,  but  for 


310  The  World's  Foundations. 

some  such  slow  and  long-continued  sinking,  the 
Pacific  would  hardly  continue  to  this  day  so  bare 
of  land,  with  its  millions  upon  millions  of  coral- 
polyps  ever  at  work,  not  to  speak  of  volcanic 
island-building  in  many  parts. 

Some  atolls  have  been  found  seemingly  in  an 
earlier  stage  of  the  above  history  of  their  growth — 
as,  for  instance,  with  a  real  island  rising  in  the 
centre,  of  peaks  not  yet  buried. 

If  the  ocean-bottom  does  thus  sink,  it  must  be 
at  a  very  slow  rate,  not  faster  than  the  polyps 
are  able  to  build  up  their  coral;  otherwise  all  the 
islands  and  reefs  would  soon  disappear  beneath 
the  waves. 

From  this  proposed  explanation  it  will  be  seen 
how  coral-polyps  may  live  only  within  a  hundred 
and  twenty  feet  of  the  surface,  and  yet  how  coral 
banks  may  reach  downwards  through  thousands  of 
feet. 

For  once  upon  a  time,  if  the  explanation  be  true, 
that  part  of  the  coral  now  so  deep  down,  lay  near 
the  surface  of  the  ocean.  As  it  sank  lower  the 
coral-polyps  died  by  thousands,  and  the  dead  coral, 
ground  into  powder  by  the  waves,  became  cemented 
into  hard  limestone;  while  higher  up  the  still  living 
corals  carried  on  the  building  work,  only  in  their 


Coral.  311 

turn  to  be  borne  downwards,  to  die,  and  to  be  suc- 
ceeded above  by  fresh  generations  of  animals. 

The  speed  at  which  coral  may  be  formed  is  very 
uncertain,  and  very  difficult  to  find  out.  Some 
islands  and  reefs  are  plainly  receiving  additions 
year  by  year.  Others  again  are  known  to  have 
been  at  a  standstill  for  years,  or  even  for  centuries 
past. 

If  the  rate  of  growth  in  one  spot  could  be  defi- 
nitely settled,  this  would  not  prove  that  the  rate 
there  or  elsewhere  is  now,  or  has  been  in  past 
ages,  always  the  same. 

Varying  circumstances,  such  as  the  depth  or 
shallowness,  the  warmth  or  coolness,  the  rough- 
ness or  smoothness  of  the  water,  also  its  freedom 
from  sediment  and  the  amount  of  sunlight  ad- 
mitted, would  greatly  help  or  hinder  the  advance 
of  coral-building.  Moreover  that  which  would  help 
one  kind  would  hinder  another,  since  the  kinds  of 
coral  and  their  manner  of  growth  differ  greatly. 
To  make  allowances  in  any  calculation  for  all 
these  possibilities  is  not  easy. 

In  one  island  a  ship's  anchor  could  be  seen  lying 
under  water  at  a  depth  of  seven  fathoms.  It  had 
belonged  to  a  ship  wrecked  fifty  years  earlier.  The 


312  The   World's  Foundations, 

anchor  was  encrusted  all  over  with  coral,  yet  not 
so  thickly  as  to  hide  its  shape.  This  was  slow 
growth. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  islet  in  the  Mal- 
dives having  a  fringe  of  cocoanut-trees  upon  it. 
The  island  was  to  a  great  extent  washed  away 
by  some  change  in  the  ocean-currents,  all  the 
trees  disappearing.  In  a  few  years  a  coral  reef 
was  built  up  upon  the  remains  of  the  old  island, 
entirely  covering  it. 

Also  in  Madagascar  certain  experiments  were 
carefully  made,  and  proof  was  obtained  that  coral 
may  grow,  under  "favorable  circumstances"  at  the 
rate  of  no  less  than  three  feet  of  thickness  in  about 
six  months.  This  says  much! 

How  long  the  wide  reaches  of  coral-banks  and 
the  multitudes  of  coral  islands  have  taken  to  be 
built  up  from  the  ocean  bottom  we  cannot  tell. 
We  only  know  that  the  rate  of  their  growth  lies 
beyond  our  power  to  determine.  We  only  know 
that  year  by  year  these  little  creatures  toil  busily 
on,  carrying  out,  all  unconsciously  to  themselves, 
the  plans  of  the  Divine  Architect. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

STALACTITE. 

"I  have  made  the  earth,  the  man  and  the  beast  that  are  upon  the 
ground."— JER.  xxvii.  5. 

THE  Peat-formations  or  Peat-mosses  of  temperate 
countries  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  without 
mention.  Many  fossil-remains  have  been  found  in 
them;  and  they  offer  as  good  an  example  of  slow 
growth  and  gradual  preparation  on  land  as  coral- 
building  offers  in  the  ocean. 

There  are  in  some  places  Peat-mosses  forty  or 
fifty  feet  in  thickness,  and  about  fifty  miles  long 
by  two  or  three  broad.  One-tenth  part  of  Ireland 
is  said  to  be  covered  with  peat-mosses.  They  are 
made  up  of  half-decayed  vegetable  matter,  piled 
thickly  together  in  damp  and  swampy  ground. 
Peat  is  in  fact  a  kind  of  imperfect  coal,  now  and 
then  coming  very  near  to  being  true  coal. 


314  The   World's  Foundations. 

The  making  of  peat  is  believed  to  have  been,  as 
a  rule,  extremely  slow.  The  Hatfield  Moss  in  York- 
shire was  a  forest  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  and 
it  still  holds  specimens  of  tall  fir-trunks. 

The  slowness  of  peat-formation  cannot  fairly  be 
taken  as  a  measure  by  which  to  judge  of  the  rate 
of  coal-formation  in  the  great  Coal-Age,  though 
sometimes  so  used.  The  peat-swamps  belong  to 
a  comparatively  cold  atmosphere;  while  the  coal- 
beds  were,  it  is  believed,  the  growth  of  a  warm 
and  moist  climate. 

A  means  by  which  change  in  the  Earth-crust 
occasionally  comes  about,  and  that  suddenly,  is 
through  land-slips. 

Sometimes  a  large  mass  of  earth,  bearing  with 
it  trees  and  houses,  will  slide  down  a  mountain-side 
for  a  considerable  distance. 

Sometimes  also,  if  a  lower  clay  layer  becomes 
very  much  softened  by  heavy  rain  or  by  the  work 
of  underground  springs,  the  weight  of  the  earth 
above  will  squeeze  it  out,  the  said  earth  sinking 
down  into  its  place.  Now  and  then  an  under- 
ground cavern,  dug  out  by  water,  will  suddenly 
collapse  or  close;  the  ground  above  sinking  in 
consequence. 


Stalactite.  3 1 5 


Many  such  cases  have  been  known,  and  traces  of 
the  catastrophe  are  often  visible  long  afterwards. 

In  1806  a  terrible  slide  happened  in  Switzerland 
on  the  Rossberg.  A  large  mass  from  the  mountain- 
top  slid  downward,  avalanche-like,  burying  several 
villages  and  spreading  itself  over  many  square  miles 
of  country.  Such  a  landslip  as  this  must  leave  its 
marks  through  centuries  following. 

A  few  words,  before  the  close,  upon  the  subject 
of  Stalactite  and  Stalagmite  Caverns. 

In  the  chapter  upon  human  remains  it  was  stated 
that  such  remains  have  occasionally  been  found  in 
caves,  together  with  more  numerous  animal-remains 
of  different  kinds. 

These  caves  are  commonly  in  countries  where 
limestone-rock  abounds.  They  are  found  in  parts 
of  England,  of  France,  of  Belgium. 

The  hollows — sometimes  of  very  considerable  ex- 
tent, and  connected  one  with  another  by  long 
passages — were  originally  dug  out  by  the  action 
of  underground  streams,  the  Carbonic  Acid  in  the 
water  helping  to  wear  away  the  rock.  Probably 
after  the  digging-out  period,  a  time  followed  during 
which  rivers  and  streams  flowed  through  the  cav- 
erns, bringing  thither  supplies  of  sand  or  mud  or 


316  The   World's  Foundations. 

other  deposits,  together  with  occasional  animal  and 
vegetable  remains — fossil-plants  and  fossil-bones. 
Later  still,  through  changes  in  the  country — either 
sudden  or  slow,  either  caused  by  fire  under  ground 
or  by  water  above  ground — these  streams  may  have 
been  diverted  into  fresh  channels,  and  the  caves 
may  have  been  left  almost  dry. 

Almost,  but  not  quite.  Water  dripping  gently 
from  the  roof  has,  in  many  instances,  formed  there- 
after curious  cones  and  cylinders  and  icicle-shapes 
of  different  sizes,  hanging  downwards  in  a  variety 
of  graceful  forms. 

Water  alone  would  have  no  power  to  do  this, 
but  I  have  already  spoken  of  abundant  limestone- 
rocks  near  at  hand.  The  dripping  water,  carrying 
a  supply  of  lime  from  the  said  rocks,  gradually 
drops  or  deposits  this  lime,  and  thus  the  lime- 
made  cones  and  cylinders  and  icicle-shapes  slowly 
grow. 

The  downward  hanging  forms  are  called  Stalac- 
tites, and  very  beautiful  they  often  are.  Fine  ex- 
amples may  be  seen  in  the  Stalactite  caverns  near 
Cheddar. 

The  same  description  of  lime-formation,  left  by 
trickling  water,  often  covers  the  whole  cavern-floor, 
and  it  is  then  called  Stalagmite. 


Stalactite.  317 


The  bones  of  animals,  and  more  rarely  of  men, 
found  in  such  caves,  are  very  commonly  buried  in 
or  under  the  Stalagmite  floor.  It  then  becomes  a 
question  of  interest  how  long  the  bones  have  lain 
there  ? 

Now,  of  course,  if  we  could  say  precisely  how 
quickly  the  Stalagmite  was  made,  and  could  meas- 
ure the  exact  depth  of  Stalagmite  above  any  one 
bone,  and  could  also  be  perfectly  certain  that  the 
said  bone  had  remained  there  quite  undisturbed 
since  the  day  when  the  animal  died,  we  should  then 
be  able  to  calculate  pretty  closely  how  long  ago 
that  particular  animal  had  lived. 

But  unfortunately  for  such  calculations,  we  have 
no  such  steadfast  foundations  to  build  upon. 

Though  the  thickness  of  stalagmite  above  any 
one  bone  is  easily  measured,  we  cannot  be  at  all 
sure  that  the  said  bone  has  remained  undisturbed 
since  the  animal  died.  It  is  often  quite  uncertain 
whether  the  animal  died  there  at  all,  or  whether 
the  bone  was  afterwards  washed  into  the  cave. 
Some  such  caves  appear  to  have  been  the  regular 
haunts  of  wild  beasts,  who  may  have  lived  and 
died  in  them;  but  in  most  cases  there  is  great 
uncertainty. 

Even   if  we   may   suppose   the    animal   to   have 


318  The   World's  Foundations. 

actually  died  within  the  cave,  we  must  still  allow 
for  the  possibility  of  later  disturbances.  Heavy 
floods,  taking  place  at  different  periods  from  severe 
rains  or  other  causes,  may  have  completely  broken 
up  and  altered  the  original  arrangement  of  bones 
on  or  in  the  floor.* 

Also,  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  rate  of  Stalac 
tite  and  Stalagmite  growth  makes  such  calcula- 
tions unreliable.  For  the  making  of  Stalactite  and 
Stalagmite,  like  the  making  of  coral,  is  not  a  thing 
which  goes  on  always  exactly  the  same,  century 
after  century,  but  varies  in  speed  with  changing 
circumstances.f 

*  "If  several  floods  pass  at  different  intervals  of  time  through  a  sub- 
terranean passage,  the  last,  if  it  has  power  to  drift  along  fragments  of 
rock,  will  also  tear  up  any  alternating  stalagmite  and  alluvial  beds  that 

may  have  been  previously  formed As  the  same  chasms 

may  remain  open  throughout  periods  of  indefinite  duration,  the  species 
inhabiting  a  country  may,  in  the  meantime,  be  greatly  changed,  and 
thus  the  remains  of  animals  belonging  to  very  different  epochs  may 
become  mingled  together  in  a  common  tomb." — LYELL. 

f  "It  is  necessary  to  the  formation  of  stalagmite  that  only  so  much 
water  should  be  present  as  suffices  to  hold  the  carbonate  of  lime  in 
solution.  No  deposit,  therefore,  takes  place,  if  a  stream  be  continuously 
flowing  through  the  cavern;  and  even  if  a  coating  be  deposited  during 
a  season  of  drought,  this  may  easily  be  broken  up  again,  if  changes  in 
the  underground  drainage  of  the  country,  or  a  rainy  winter,  cause  the 
cavern  to  be  again  flooded." — Ibid. 


Stalactite.  319 


For  awhile  the  Stalagmite  formation  may  con- 
tinue steadily;  but  let  a  wet  winter  come,  and 
the  dripping  water  increase  to  a  flowing  stream; 
or  let  a  dry  summer  come,  and  even  the  dripping 
cease;  or  let  the  supply  of  limestone  slacken;  and 
in  each  case  the  same  result  follows — stalagmite 
ceases  to  form. 

To  examine  the  stalagmite  in  a  cavern,  and  to 
note  the  amount  of  its  increase  between  two  visits, 
is  one  thing.  To  assert  that  because  it  has  grown 
so  much  in  such  a  time,  therefore  it  has  always 
grown  at  the  same  rate  in  the  past,  and  therefore, 
again,  the  whole  layer  has  taken  precisely  so  many 
years  or  centuries  in  forming,  is  quite  another  thing  ! 
The  first  is  the  assertion  of  a  proved  fact.  The  sec- 
ond is  the  assertion  of  an  unproved  theory — and 
of  a  theory  for  which  no  proof  is  possible. 

A  good  many  guesses  have  been  made  as  to  the 
possible  speed  with  which  stalagmite  may  have 
been  made  in  certain  caves,  where  it  has  been 
found  covering  animal  bones. 

For  example,  it  was  suggested  in  one  instance 
that  one-twentieth  of  an  inch  in  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  or  about  one  inch  in  five  thousand 
years,  might  be  the  probable  rate. 

Even  if  it  could  be  proved,  however,   that   the 


320  The   World's  Foundations. 

stalagmite  in  that  particular  cave  had  been  form- 
ing at  this  very  slow  rate  in  late  years — a  doubt- 
ful matter,  since  some  are  inclined  to  think  the 
growth  there  has  long  stopped  altogether — still 
we  should  have  no  proof  whatever  as  to  the 
quickness  or  slowness  of  its  formation  in  the 
past. 

For  examples  of  more  rapid  growth,  as  also  of 
varying  speed,  are  by  no  means  rare. 

Certain  deal  boards  were  left  exposed  to  such 
drippings  near  Durham.  In  the  course  of  fifteen 
years,  the  stalactite  encrusting  their  edges  had 
become  three-quarters  of  an  inch  thick. 

A  gas-pipe  was  left  thus  exposed  in  Poole's  Hole, 
near  Buxton.  In  six  months  one-eighth  of  an  inch 
of  stalactite  was  formed  upon  it.  After  that  the 
growth  went  on  more  slowly,  increasing  to  nearly 
one  inch  and  a  quarter  by  the  end  of  eighteen 
years. 

An  iron  nail  was  left  in  a  forsaken  lead-mine, 
where  it  caught  a  stalactite  drip.  In  seventy-five 
years  a  quarter  of  an  inch  was  formed  upon  it. 
Moreover,  it  is  said  that  modern  bottles  have 
been  found  beneath  a  stalagmite  floor,  as  deeply 
buried  as  mammoth-bones  elsewhere. 

These  facts  simply  serve  to  show  the  great  ir- 


Stalactite.  321 

regularity  of  stalagmite  growth,  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  any  calculation  founded  upon  a  supposed 
regular  rate  of  increase,  since  such  a  regular  rate 
plainly  does  not  exist. 

Thus  step  by  step,  briefly,  as  was  needful,  we 
have  followed  out  the  manner  in  which,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, the  Crust  of  the  Earth  was  fashioned  by 
the  Creator;  the  manner  in  which,  through  ages 
past,  He  formed  it  to  be  the  Home  of  Man;  the 
manner  in  which  He  still  moulds  and  alters  it,  here 
or  there,  as  He  sees  fit. 

There  is  and  must  be  very  much  that  we  cannot 
understand  in  the  science  of  Geology.  Nor  will  any 
really  honest  mind,  still  less  any  really  great  mind, 
hesitate  to  acknowledge  the  fact,  and  to  bow  low 
in  conscious  ignorance  before  the  might  of  Him 
who  alone  knows  all  things. 

We  are  but  spelling 'out  the  broken  sentences 
of  the  rock-volume,  written,  as  it  is,  in  a  strange 
language,  with  many  missing  paragraphs.  What 
marvel  if  we  make  some  mistakes  ? 

But  with  patience  and  caution  we  may  still  press 
on.  In  the  great  Book  of  Nature  much  may  be 
learnt  about  the  God  of  Nature.  Illegible  though 
parts  of  the  volume  may  be,  yet  if  we  read  in  a 


322  The   World's  Foundations. 

loving  and  humble  spirit,  we  shall  find  some  les- 
sons to  be  clear;  we  shall  find  ourselves  better 
acquainted  than  before  with  the  boundless  power 
of  Him  who  "  doeth  according  to  his  will  in  the 
army  of  heaven,  and  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth;  and  none  can  stay  His  Hand,  or  say  unto 
Him,  What  doest  Thou?" 


INDEX. 


Age,  Bronze  and  Iron,  203. 
Great  Ice,  191. 
Ice,  supposed  Second,  207. 
of  Fishes,  121. 

of  Lower  Animals  or  Lime- 
stone Building,  ill. 
Post -Tertiary,  190. 
Stone,  203. 

Ages,  Three  great,  in. 
Ammonites,  156. 

Mummulites  and  cor- 
als, 182. 

Amphibians,  144. 
Animal  and  Vegetable  Kingdoms, 

93- 

Kingdom,  Table  of,  100. 
Remains  in  caves,  317. 
Animalcules,  161. 
Animals,  plants  and  rocks,  96. 

In  England  and  France  in 

Third  Period,  183. 
Architect,  The  Divine,  209. 
Artesian  wells,  236. 
Atolls,  or  rings  of  coral,  303. 

Barrier-reefs,  306. 
Bath,  hot  springs  of,  294. 
Bay  of  Fundy  mud-flats,  250. 
Bell -Rock  Lighthouse,  238. 
Bird-skeleton,  156. 
Books,  The  two  great,  87. 
Boulder-clay  or  drift,  72. 
British  Isles,  formation  of,  180. 

Chalk  Age  and  Secondary  Period, 

close  of,  169. 
Geography  of,  166. 
And  Flint,  164. 

Time  in  building, 
165. 


Chalk  Cliffs,  19,  44. 

Formation  in  America,  160. 
Making  Age,  159. 
Cheddar  Caverns,  316. 
Classification  in  the  Kingdoms,  94. 
Climate  of  earth,  third  period  days, 

179. 
Coal,  48. 

Age,  climate,  140. 

Description     of    forest 

scene,  130. 

Beds  in  South  Wales,  139. 
Preparation,  129,  155. 
Seams,  135. 
Cold,  signs  of  in  early  third  period 

rocks,  181. 

Cone  of  a  Volcano,  261. 
Coral,  122,  155. 

Deep-sea,  300. 
Formation,  speed  of,  311. 
Kinds  of,  300. 
Making,  112. 
Polyp,  The,  299. 
Coral-Reef  building,  301. 
Crater  of  a  volcano,  261. 
Creation,  Bible  record  of,  2IO. 
Days  of,  86. 
Of  the  world,  103. 
Theories  of  explanation, 

210. 

Crumbling  cliffs,  II. 
Crystallization,  8. 

Deltas,  lake  and  ocean,  244. 

River,  243. 
Diatoms,  47, 
Diluvial  soil,  75. 

Disturbances  among  the  rocks,  114. 
Divisions  in  nature,  94. 
Drift  or  till,  191. 


324 


Index. 


Earl  of  Mar's  Punch-bowl,  227. 

Geology,  Difficulty  of  reading  rec 

Earth,  In  earliest  days,  108. 

ord,  63. 

Preparation    of,    for    Man, 

Meaning  of,  I. 

89. 

Much  that  cannot  be  un- 

What made  of,  I  . 

derstood,  321. 

Earthquakes,  36. 
Cause  of,  277. 

The  Volume  of,  7. 
Geysers,  295. 

General  effects  of,  284. 

American,  297. 

In  Calabria,  281. 

Icelandic,  296. 

Caraccas,  280. 

Glacial  Age,  The,  83. 

Chili,  278. 

Glacier-holes  at  Lucerne,  228. 

Cutch,  279. 

Glaciers,  77,  252. 

Jamaica,  284. 

Greenland,  256. 

Lisbon,  282. 

Mont  Blanc,  255. 

New  Zealand,  278. 

Movements  of,  252. 

Earth's  Crust,  2. 

Theory  of,  193. 

Changes  in,  II. 

Greenland  ice-foot,  260. 

Disturbances  in,  26. 

Ground,  Rising  and  sinking  of,  133. 

Gradual  movements 

of,  288. 

Heat,  Underground,  37. 

Erratics,  74. 

Hot  springs,  294. 

Etna,  267. 

Human  relics,  201. 

Remains  in  caves,  206. 

"Faults,"  68,  278. 

Feejee  Islands,  307. 

Ice-action,  Possible,  172. 

Ferns,  141. 
Fire,  and  water,  39. 

Icebergs,  80,  254. 
Possible  in  Third  Period, 

Fountains  of,  276. 

181. 

Lakes  of,  275. 

Spitzbergen,  259. 

Fish-fossils,   127. 

Insect-remains,  125. 

Fishes,  156. 

Island,  Formation  of  a  coral,  303. 

The  first,  118. 

Floods,  Time  of,  195. 

Lagoons,  303. 

Floor  of  Pacific  Ocean  supposed  to 

Lake  of  Geneva,  Delta  of,  244. 

sink,  291. 

Land-sinkings.  21. 

Forests,  125,  140. 
Formation,  65. 

Land-slip,  314. 
On  Rossberg,  315. 

Fossil  rain-prints,  70. 
Fossils,  different  kinds  of,  23,  57. 
in  rocks,  47. 
on  mountain  -tops,  25. 

Vispbach,  229. 
Life,  96. 
New,  Period  begun,  175. 
Widespread     destruction     Df, 

Vegetable,  In  coal,  142. 

171. 

Fringing-reefs,  307. 

Limestone,  46. 
London  and  Paris  basins,  180. 

Galongoon,  volcano  of,  269. 

Ganges    and    Brahmapootra,    The 

Maldine  Islands,  306. 

247. 
Geological  Ages,  Table  of,  219. 

Mammals,  182. 
First,  157. 

Inde*,. 


325 


Mammoths  and  Mastodons,  198. 
Mer  de  Glace,  255. 

Rising  of  land  in  Sweden,  290. 
River  Simeto,  230, 

Middle  Life  period,  147. 

Two  beds  of  a,  232. 

Mississippi,  Delta  of,  248. 

Rock,  Alternate  layers  of,  140. 

Monte  Nuovo,  272. 

And  Fossils,  Third  Period, 

Moraines,  78,  258. 

177. 

Mountain  meal,  48, 

Aqueous,  22, 

Mountains,  Upheaval,  146,  178. 

and  Igneous,  31. 

Mud,  Nature  of,  at  bottom  of  At- 
lantic Ocean,  162. 

Building  in  past  ages,  52. 
Different  kinds  of,  6. 

Mud-banks,  243, 

Earliest  known,  107. 

Flint,  Clay  and  Lime,  40. 

Nations,  History  of  periods,  203. 
Nature,  Powers  of,  34. 

Foldings  and  bending,  65. 
Fossiliferous,  22. 

Niagara  receding,  231. 

Plutonic  and  Metamorphic, 

Nile,  The  Delta  of,  246. 

So- 

Norfolk,  Demolished  towns  of,  240. 
Nummulites,  177. 

Primary  or   "Ancient  Ani- 
mal,"  no. 

Old  sea-beaches,  20. 

Secondary  and  Transition,32. 
Sedimentary,  16. 

"  Organs,"  96. 

Strata,  chain  of  records,  62. 

Stratified  and  Unstratified,  8. 

Past  ages  of  preparation  for  Man,  89. 
Peat-mosses,  313. 

Building  up  of,  18. 
Thickness  of,  61. 

Slowness  of  Formation,  314. 

What  is  meant  by, 

Periods  and  Ages,  192,  218. 

10. 

Hants,  Change  of,  167. 

What  made  of,  41. 

Flowering,  167. 

Volcanic,  30. 

Flowerless,  124. 

Wearing  away  by  streams, 

Tropical,  179. 

226. 

Po  and  Adige,  The  rivers,  245. 

Pot-holes,  228. 

Sand-bars,  243. 

Primary  Period,  End  of,  145. 

Sandstone,  New  Red,  121. 

Saurians,  151. 

Quadrupeds  and  Whales,  Ancient, 

Scotch  "till,"  72, 

1  88. 

Scratched  Stones,  probable  explana- 

Huge, 195. 

tion,  79. 

Sea-weeds  and  sea-creatures  of  Si- 

Rains   wearing    away    the    earth, 

lurian  days,  115. 

234- 

Seas  and  continents,  III. 

Reptiles,  148,  160. 

Sediment  and  detritus,  15. 

Birds    and    Ammonites, 

Shells,  sea  and  fresh  water,  176, 

168. 

Shetland    Islands,    action    of    the 

First,  132,  144. 

waves  on,  238. 

Reuss  in  Pass  of  St.  Gotthard,  228. 

Sigillaria,  143. 

Rhizopods,  43. 

And  Stigmaria,  137. 

and  Diatoms,  165. 

Sinking  of  land  in  Greenland,  291, 

Rhone,  Delta  of  the,  244. 

Sea-bottom,  308. 

326 


Index. 


Stages  in  existence  of  heavenly  bod- 

Vegetable   Kingdom,     Table    of, 

ies,  104. 

101. 

Probable  in  preparation  of 

Vesuvius,  271. 

the  earth,  104. 

Volcanic  eruptions,  38, 

Stalactite  and  stalagmite  caves,  315. 
Stalagmite  formation,  speed  of,  319. 

Volcano,  A,  261. 
Volcanoes,   Active,   Dormant  and 

Steam,  Power  of,  294. 

Extinct,  262. 

Stones  scratched  and  scored,  71. 

Different  kinds  of  erup- 

Strata, Arrangement  of,  26,  54. 

tions,  262. 

Classification  of,  58. 

Hawaiian,  273. 

Table  of,  59. 

Icelandic,  265. 

Stratum,  and  "Layer,"  64. 

Mexican,  264. 

Sub-kingdoms  and  classes,  97, 
Sussex,  Inundations  of,  241. 

Nearness    of,    to    the 
Ocean,  293. 

Of  the  Andes,  263. 

Temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  292. 
Theory,  what  is  meant  by,  5. 

Water,  and  Fire,  actions  of,  214. 

Torrents,  work  of,  13, 

Digging  out  of  passages  by, 

Tracks  of  Amphibians  and  Rep- 

3I5- 

tiles,  153. 

Running,  work  of,  225. 

free-trunks  in  Mines,  137. 

Waves,  and  cracks,  282. 

Trees,  Fossiliferous,  143. 
frilobites,  117. 

Work  done  by,  302. 
Wear  of  Cliffs  round  Britain,  237. 

and  Lobsters,  128. 

World-history  before  Adam,  84. 

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